Circle of Leaves
by czgohan
Summary: This is a sequal to my story of Naruto Sensei/Rokudaime Naruto line. this is the final part to it and will follow the lives of the children of the Konoha 12, please r/r on Hiatus…not sure for how long but I will get back to it
1. Chapter 1

Circle of Leaves

Chapter One

Minato satin the classroom with his chin resting on his arms as he gazed, glossy eyed, at the black board, which had the words 'Congratulations Graduates' written across it.

His twin sister, Hana, was sitting behind him. She was chatting with one of her friends, very animatedly. Minato was trying to drown out the sound of them.

He was snapped out of his reverie by something slamming down onto the desk right next to his head. The boy looked up to see a giant fan resting on the desk. Holding the other end of it was a blond girl, one who was smirking at him.

"Minato-kun, here we are ready to start our careers as leaf Shinobi, and you are about to fall asleep?" she commented, shaking her head and sitting down next to him. "Some times you are worse than my father."

He smiled and nodded to the girl, "Hello, Shikara-chan," he said sitting up. "Now is that why you are a friend of mine? Because I remind you of your father?"

Shikara smacked him lightly in the back of the head, "Baka."

Minato settled back into his seat, and eyeing the battle fan the girl had, "so, I see your mother finally got you one, huh?"

The girl shook her head, "no, this was a gift from my uncle. It is hard to find one like this in Konoha, as there aren't that many people that work with wind attacks. So he brought it over last time he visited here from Suna. My mother let me have it as a graduation gift."

"That's cool," the dark haired boy replied.

At this point Minato felt something poke him in the back of the head. He turned a bit to see his sister grinning, while motioning her head to the blonde Konoichi that was sitting next to him. He rolled his eyes and turned to face front again. Behind him he heard more giggling and whispering.

Once every one was in class the Chunin that was sitting at his desk stood and addressed the kids. "Ok class, first I want to say that I am proud of all of you. You have all done well and graduated." He paused for a moment until the class's sudden uproar died down. "That being said, I will now call out the teams of three that you have been sorted into, and after your name is called you will come down and meet your new Sensei, so team one…"

Minato drifted out, until he heard his name being called. All around him people where giving mixed reactions, some looked happy at their teams, while others where more than a bit disappointed.

The Chunin finally said something that brought Minato back to reality. "Uzumaki…Hana," he started and Minato began to drift out again, but forced himself to pay attention as his team could be this one, though he hoped not, or the next, the class was getting a bit on the empty side.

The Chunin continued, "Inuzuka Mikato and Aburame Inbi, you three will be team Eight. Your Jonin Sensei is Sarutobi-Yuuhi Asuma."

Minato watched as his sister got up and joined her two teammates and a young bearded man, who looked no older than twenty-one, escorted them from the room.

Their Chunin sensei continued down the list, "Uzumaki Minato," at this the boy perked up, "Tezuma Hito, and Nara Shikara will make up team nine. Your Jonin Sensei will be Ankuko Mayte."

Minato looked over at the girl next to him to find her smirking at him. He smiled at the blonde a bit before getting up with her to join their new teammate already at the door, along with a man that Minato knew as one of his father's old students.

The three followed the Jonin silently to the roof where he had them introduce themselves. This was mostly a formality, as they all knew each other. Some more than others though, Minato glanced at the other boy there thinking to himself that he knew this guy was a good guy, but he mostly kept to himself in school.

Mayte spoke when they where all sitting in front of him, "ok, now I want to go through introductions as we need to get to know one another. I understand that I know a couple of you," he said nodding in Minato and Shikara's direction, "and that you know each other from the academy, but it is tradition and so I want us all to say a little bit about ourselves." He paused for a moment, "I'll even go first. My name is Ankuko Mayte, I like training and my work, I dislike… well I don't really dislike anything too strongly that it bears mentioning, also there are no real goals I have that need to be fulfilled." He motioned to Hito, "now you."

The boy nodded, "My name is Tezuma Hito, I dislike pointless violence and pain, and I like training and studying. I suppose my goal would be to be the best that I can be and eventually teach others, I feel that my time is best served in helping others."

Mayte nodded at that, "ok very good," he pointed at the other boy, "ok go ahead."

"I'm Uzumaki Minato, I like to read and to relax with friends, and I dislike having everyone expect nothing but the best from me. I want to do my best as well but I don't want people to think that I have to. My goal is…not really something that I have thought about."

"Ok, good." Mayte said, and motioning to the female present, "now you."

"Hai, my name is Nara Shikara." She said, "I like to train and spar. I want to prove myself to my parents and my friends. My dislikes are pervert. My goal in life is to be a strong Konoichi along the lines of the fifth Hokage, Tsunade and Lady Sakura."

Mayte nodded, "ok that's good. Well I have a good feeling about this group. Hopefully you can prove yourselves worthy of the title of ninja tomorrow."

"What do you mean, 'prove ourselves?' We already passed." said Shikara.

Mayte smiled and chuckled softly, "what that you passed the academy?" he shook his head. "I'm sorry but before you can continue on I must judge you to be worthy of remaining a squad. That and to make sure you will work well together."

"How do we do that?" asked Minato.

"You will meet me in the training grounds, number 20, tomorrow morning at 5 am. There you will be tested. Oh and be sure not to eat any breakfast as well." The Jonin said.

"Why not?" the female asked.

"Because you will only throw it up." He replied.

In another part of the school, the new team 8 where going through the same thing as the others did, in introducing themselves. "My name is Sarutobi-Yuuhi Asuma, I became Jonin a couple of years ago and this is my first team. My hobbies include reading and training my genjustsu skills. My goal in life is to be strong in honor of my father."

His new students nodded and the blonde girl went first, "I'm Uzumaki Hana, I like my friends and my family, I also like training with my uncle. My dislikes would have to be annoying know it all's. My goal is to be a strong Konoichi like Uchiha Sakura maybe be recognized as a Sannin level ninja like her."

"Ok good, you next," the Jonin said, pointing as the boy with the dog at his feet.

"Hai, I'm Inuzuka Mikato, and this is Kasshoku," he said motioning to the dog. "I like sparing and working out. I dislike cats. I have no real goals but to be the best I can, like my uncle and clan leader, Kiba."

"Very good, now you," Asuma said motioning to the last boy there.

"Hai sensei, my name is Aburame Inbi. I like bug collecting and researching now species of insect. I dislike people who dislike them based simply on pre-conceived notions of disgust. I plan to help further the understanding that bugs are not always something to be feared, at least not without reason."

"Ok well that's good," said the Jonin. "I have a good feeling about this group, now I have no other groups to base it on as this is my first, but my mother was sensei to a group just like this one.

"Really?" said Mikato.

"Well I know that Hana here already knows that my mother was sensei to hers, so this group now has a member with the power of the Hyuuga clan, also on that old team was you uncle Mikato, and Inbi's clan leader. So this group has the same expectations as team 8 from the konoha 12, can anyone guess what that is?"

Inbi spoke up, "well we have descendents of the Hyuuga, the Inuzuka and Aburame clans on this team. Based on what I have heard, then it is expected that this team will be a tracking and surveillance specialties."

"Correct Inbi," said Asuma. "But we will not be overly specialized, after all focusing too much on one strength leaves weakness in other areas."

The Genin nodded and Asuma continued, "That being said we will train and enhance your current skills and build new ones. Tomorrow we will met in the morning at training grounds 16 we will have a test there, you are to meet me at 5 am is that clear?"

The three all nodded together, "Hai, Sensei."

Well that's the start of my new story the sequel and final chapter of my Naruto sensei/Rokudaime Naruto line. Hope you like and please review.


	2. Chapter 2

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Two

Minato woke up early in the morning. So early that even his mother, the earliest riser he has ever known, was not even awake yet. He set about bathing, and he also saw that the sun was just starting to peak over the horizon.

Minato was hungry as well. He did not have much to eat the previous night, and was sorely tempted to eat some breakfast, despite what his sensei had said. He shook the thought from his head; there must have been a reason that he told them not to eat anything, aside from them throwing up. But he was damned if he knew what that reason was.

He had asked his father about it, as Mayte's remark had thrown him off. But his father was oddly tight-lipped about it. He had told Minato that he should listen to what his sensei said, really listen to it. But at the same time he also told the young Shinobi not to take anything said at face value.

"Great advice dad, "Minato muttered to himself, as he dressed after washing up. "You know, the contradictory advice wasn't useful in the least," he said to no one in particular, while strapping his gear to his waist. As he strapped another, smaller pouch to his leg, he wondered if his father got some kind of kick out of this, confusing his own son.

He looked through the pouches, he made sure it was fully stocked, his Kunai, shurikin, exploding tags where all filled. There where extra knives in the holder on his right leg along with extra shurikin. He also had a few sealing scrolls for his bulkier weapons.

Minato glanced at the clock to see that is was 4:45 am. He sighed as he had to wake his sister, Hana, before leaving to be at his designated training grounds in fifteen minutes.

Ten minutes later He was approaching the grounds. He got there to see his two teammates had just gotten there as well. They all shared greetings and stood waiting for their sensei.

An Hour passed. Minato was sitting next to Shikara, who had her head resting on his shoulder with her eyes closed. Hito was pacing, twirling a Kunai on his finger. Every so often he would toss it into the grass by his feet, only pausing to reach down and pull it from the ground. He would then continue his pacing.

Two hours had passed and all three of them where now sitting on the ground, wondering why they were still waiting. After all, what kind of Jonin doesn't observe punctuality? Being on time for missions was something that was drilled into their heads in the academy.

And aside from the fact that they where all annoyed by his lateness. To add to it, if they where hungry before, it was now around breakfast time, they were starving.

At 9:00 Mayte finally showed up, they were all too tired to really let him know what they were feeling. They did say some things, but not with the energy that they could have had a few hours ago.

"All right, I am sorry for being so late, I overslept a bit," said Mayte. He saw three pairs of eye narrow at him and smirked a bit, "But now that we are all here I would like to go over what we will be doing. This will be a test to show to me which of you, if any, are acceptable to be shinobi."

Mayte removed the small pack from his back and placed it on the ground. Opening the pack he removed 3 packed lunches, an alarm, and a fairly long length of rope. He then stood and addressed his students. "Ok the rules of the test are simple." He pulled two bells on sting from his pocket and attached them to his belt, "you are to take the bells from me before that alarm goes off at noon. If you can get a bell you will be able to continue as Genin and our real training and missions can begin."

He paused while the new Genin looked on confused, "But there are only two bells," said Hito simply.

"Yes and what is your point?" asked Mayte.

"Well, there are three of u, doesn't that mean it will be hopeless for one of us to pass?" asked Hito.

Mayte smiled, "you catch on quick. That's correct, if you cannot get a bell you will go back to the academy." The three of them all looked outraged and Mayte continued, "Also if you fail you will be tied to one of those posts." He pointed to the three wood posts in the middle of the ground, "and you will be forced to watch as I eat the lunch that I brought for you."

At this point the Genin's eyes all widened in realization. That was why he told them not to eat, the bastard wanted them hungry.

Mayte went on, "you have three hours now to get one of the bells, you must come at me with the full intent to kill or you will never be ale to get one." They stood there for a long moment and Mayte snapped, "What are you waiting for? Go!"

With that all three of them jumped away and scattered into the trees.

Minato was perched in a tree watching the Jonin. Mayte was in the middle of the clearing, leaning against one of the posts with his eyes closed. Minato retreated a bit further to think things over.

Ok, their sensei was obviously baiting them, Minato had never heard of a two-person Genin team. He thought through everything he could.

Mayte had said that they needed to get the bells from him. But he was a Jonin; he was much more experienced and stronger than any of them. He couldn't hope to get one on his own.

'Maybe what father said was a hint,' he thought to himself. He had said not to take anything at face value. Could there be some kind of hidden clue in all that they where told the day before and just now? It seemed to make sense, their teachers had all stressed the importance of deception in the ninja arts. And if there wasn't any hidden meaning then what was the point of it all? What was the point of putting them on teams of three, only to split them up the next day?

Mayte himself had said yesterday that he would be judging if they could make a good squad, he said that they were being checked to see if they worked well together.

At that point it all fell into place for the young Uzumaki. 'He is trying to pit us against each other, he is doing it to see if we can overcome our problems and focus on the mission,' he thought. Teamwork was another key teaching in school, working together as a team, balancing out one person's weakness with another's strength. That's what makes for success, 'we have to work together if we are to stand a chance at this.'

His mindset, Minato placed his hand into a seal in front of his face, "Byakugan," he muttered. The veins around his eyes became more defined and bulged, activating his family's bloodline. Minato looked for his teammates and soon found Hito, who was close to the clearing. He seemed to be watching their sensei through the trees, apparently contemplating his best course of action.

Minato shifted his view to Mayte; he noticed something odd near the Jonin. The ground that he was standing on was infused with chakra; he looked closer and saw that the sand underneath him was shifting. 'Crap,' he thought. 'She's already making a move.'

Suddenly sand erupted from under the Jonin and wrapped around him, tendrils of sand also formed and ran the man through at several points on his boy. Mayte's eyes never opened throughout the attack. The blonde girl appeared from the trees and ran at him, kunai in hand. When she reached him she cut one of the bells from the belt and palmed it.

Minato wished that he had reached her before she struck, as what happened next did not surprise him in the least. The Jonin's body turned to rock and began to crumble away. Shikara saw this and opened her hand to find it full of pebbles. She swore under her breath as she realized that this was a replacement, one with a stone clone.

Minato was about to run out to her when he saw Mayte in the trees as well with his hands full of Shurikin, he threw them all aimed at the girl.

Thankfully the Nara girl felt it coming, she grabbed the fan from her back and opening it partway created a gust that blew all the weapons off course. After the attempted retaliation she jumped from the clearing and landed beside her friend.

Minato turned to her, "impressive, but you still missed."

"That bastard was just playing," she muttered. "I never got a chance at him. And now I blew my element of surprise."

"Somehow I don't think that we can surprise him," said a voice to their right. They turned to see Hito, "I was waiting to see what would happen if one of us attacked him, I think that he is aware of pretty much everything that is happening."

"So what are you saying?" spat Shikara, still a bit sore at what just happened.

"Not sure," said Hito.

Minato spoke up, "we have to work together."

The other two stared at him, and he explained what he figured to be the true purpose of this test. "So I think that we need to work together, and even though there are only two bells we all pass together."

Hito nodded, "That does make sense, now that you say it like that. I should have realized it; this is all one big psychological attack on us. I guess I was, and still am too hungry to think properly."

"Ok Shikara-chan," started Minato, "how much more do you have in you?"

"What do you mean Minato-kun?" she asked, cocking her head.

"I mean with your sand technique, if we can drive him to you can you hold Mayte-sensei long enough for us to grab the bells?"

"Using the sand burns through my charka very fast, I don't have the capabilities with it that my uncle does. I can only hold him with it for a minute or so." She replied.

"Well your uncle is a Kage, so he would be more powerful," said Minato.

"All that is beside the point," said Hito. "Mayte has seen her Kekkei-Genkei already, it will be much harder to catch him with it now, especially if you consider the fact that even the first time she used it she didn't catch him."

"All we have to do is position him into a place that she will be waiting for him. The three of us can attack him from three sides, push him back to Shikara-chan, where she grabs him and then the two of us go for the bells." Minato explained.

"Wait, if I waste too much time and energy attacking him, then I wont have enough Chakra to catch him, let alone hold him there," she said.

"Well you won't be attacking him, you will be waiting for the right moment to strike." Minato replied.

"But you just said that I would be attacking him along side you two."

Hito suddenly under stood, "no it just has to look like you are attacking him."

"Exactly," said Minato. He then put his hands into a seal. "Kage-Bunshin," there was suddenly another Minato sitting there, the clone performed a Henge into a perfect copy of the blonde girl.

The three of them talked over the plan for a moment longer and then split up. Shikara went to the edge of the trees and where they had agreed to have her waiting. Minato, Hito and 'Shikara,' all went to the clearing and positioned them selves around their sensei.

Mayte smirked when he saw his three Genin surrounding him, "so this is how it is," he said.

They said nothing but attacked, Hito pulled a few kunai from his pouch and threw them at Mayte. The Jonin dodged all of them and they hit the ground at his feet, he looked up to see Hito smirking, then his eyes drifted back to the Kunai and saw that the handles were wrapped in a smoking paper.

Mayte jumped away and the ground he was just standing on was soon engulfed in a fairly large explosion from the collective tags. He was smiling to himself, 'looks like they may have figured it out,' he thought as he was met with the blonde Konoichi, who was swinging her folded fan at his chest. Mayte pushed 'Shikara' back and landed on the ground.

"Got you now," was all he heard before he felt a Chakra spike, Mayte shifted to the left and saw a glowing hand pass in front of his face. He turned to the Uzumaki who had just thrown a Juken strike at him.

Backing away and dodging all to the attempts with apparent ease Mayte was actually enjoying the way these kids where trying, suddenly his smirk went away when he felt something wrap around his ankles. Looking down he saw sand tendrils snaking their way up his legs. He shook his head and ran thru a few simple seals.

Minato saw that he was about to do but was not quick enough to stop it. In a burst of smoke Minato found himself pretty much covered in sand.

Shikara felt something against her neck, she looked to see Mayte standing there with a kunai in his hand, "very impressive," she said and walked her out of the trees.

"Ok Guys, it seems that you get the true meaning of this exam. But just to be sure can you tell me?" Mayte called out.

"You pitted us against each other in order to see if we could move past the competition and work together, the only way we would have even stood a chance." Minato said. "We had to prove that we understood teamwork."

Mayte nodded, "Yes but I have to wonder if, considering who your father is you didn't have any unfair knowledge before today."

Minato shook his head, "to be truthful I asked him about it and it was the quietest he has ever been about something."

Mayte smirked, "wow, well then there is just one thing left to say, You Pass."

Authors note: I hope you all liked this chapter, please review. Thanks


	3. Chapter 3

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Three

Naruto sat at his desk reading over the reports that the new Jonin squad leaders handed him, 'this class has more potential than mine did,' he thought to himself as he leafed through the accounts of the testing.

Now it is true that as Hokage his really shouldn't play favorites, but he couldn't help but be more than just a little pleased at the out come of two teams in particular, teams eight and nine, had no chance at failing the final test, and it put an even bigger grin on his face when he heard of his son taking charge and leading his team.

His daughter had done the same thing, but that was expected from her, she was always like that. But to hear that his son had done so was a great feeling. 'That kid, oddly enough, models himself after the laziest ninja in this village. If he wasn't mine I'd swear that that he was a Nara.'

Naruto had an idea in mind for a gift for his children upon their success in joining the rank of genin and being recognized as shinobi of the leaf. His day dragged by as he was looking forward to it himself, it would be quite a surprise for them.

His day was soon over and he changed out of his robes before leaving the office. Donning his long orange and black overcoat, that was styled after this father's old cloak. But where the Forth had worn a cloak that was mostly white with an orange flame design along the edge, Naruto's was a dark orange, with black flame along the edges.

When Hinata had made it for him, while he did love that she did it, was still apprehensive of dressing in it. He had grown out of his orange phase a long time ago, when he saw all of his friend's points, it was not the most tactical color he could wear.

Hinata had told him that, while it was true this cloak was not suitable for missions (not that he did that anymore) or diplomatic meetings, it was perfectly fine to wear around the village. Besides she liked seeing him in that color, it just suited him.

As he walked the street he noticed the difference from the kind of looks he would get thirty years ago. When he was a child the villagers, with a few exceptions, would give him hate filled looks or turn their backs on him, some would even be openly hostile to him.

Now it was completely different, he was no longer the container for a demon. He was someone who was willing to give his life to protect this village and its people. It had been a long hard road but he was finally, truly accepted.

He would get friendly and respectful greetings from the villagers old and young alike. The women of the village would glace, flirtatiously at him, even when he was with his wife. Naruto had wondered how his father had dealt with it. From stories that Kakashi and Jiriaya had told him, the forth was the envy of many men in the village and the desire of many women. Jiriaya had, many times, expressed his jealousy at his former student's status.

They had also said what his mother was like in those cases. Kakashi had once equated Naruto's mother to Hinata, kind hearted and gentle, but very protective of her own. Naruto had seen the look that entered Hinata's eyes when women where being too forward.

All the same Naruto kept the same smile on his face as he walked the street. While it was obvious that any other woman had no chance, he had decided that he didn't have to be a jerk about it like the teme was when they where still in school.

Naruto reached his destination, a weapon shop owned and operated by a retired shinobi, the owner's daughter was also a good friend of his wife's. But the fact that this was Tenten's family's shop was not the reason that Naruto remained loyal to them. They had the best equipment and where the only weapons shop that did not throw him on his ass when he was a struggling Genin.

The bells on the door jingled as Naruto entered, the clerk at the counter looked up from his book keeping and smiled. He stood and bowed respectfully, "Hokage-sama, welcome."

Naruto nodded his head back to the man, "hello, I'm hoping that my order is ready."

The owner of the shop appeared from behind some curtains and entered the shop area from the back room. Seeing Naruto there, "Naruto-sama, please come back here. Your order is just about ready, one final thing to do and I obviously cannot do it."

"Right," Naruto said and made his way to the back room. "Right you are Yoroi-san."

It was hot back there. The fire in the Smiths stove was roaring, that coupled with the cramped feeling of the cluttered room made the room itself like an oven.

Wiping sweat already forming from his face Naruto remarked, "I will never get how you can stand this all day long."

The older man chuckled, "I hardly notice it any more. I've been enjoying this type of work for years now, besides someone has to keep the blades of Konaha sharp."

"Yeah, I guess so." Naruto looked around and spotted a familiar sword propped up on the rack, "that's Sasuke's sword," Naruto said eyeing the white and black wooden sheath.

"Yes," the older man replied. "And a fine blade it is, the chakra enhanced metal used should have made it last a life time. I can only guess that the amount of times Uchiha Sasuke runs an electric current down the blade, it has weakened. But by the time I'm done with it, it will never fail him. Still your order is in my office, we can finish it up there."

They made there way into a drastically cooler room in the far back of the shop. On the table of the office were two small boxes, Naruto removed the lid from one of them to reveal a tri-pronged kunai. These where different from the ones that he normally carries.

"Made from the same type of medal as the Uchihas sword, and the late Sarutobi Asumas blades." The owner said, "I hardened these to withstand quite a beating."

"Hopefully it won't need it," Naruto said as he lifted one from its container. He saw that the blades on the prongs were curved almost as though they were wings, half folded around either side of the main blade.

"That adds to the momentum and force of the throw," said the old smith, "your father's original design was good, but the wings actually cause some resistance on that type."

"Yeah that's true, those kunai seem to have a whole different flight than a normal one." Naruto remarked turning the blade over in his hand to see the inscribed initials of U.M. in the blade.

"These however, where Tenten's idea, she got the idea after seeing one of yours. She figured that if it where molded like this the outer blades would add a spin to it, increasing the range and damage that could be done." The man said, "I haven't been making them like that because if normal metal is used the thin 'wings' are more susceptible to breaking. A strong enhanced metal is needed for durability, but that type of metal is far too expensive for a regular kunai that literally gets thrown away."

"Really impressive, you have out done your self this time Yoroi-san. But you always make the best." Naruto said. "And the price doesn't matter, nothing is too good for them."

"Yes, I completely agree," smiled the old man. "Nothing but the very best there can be for our children, would be acceptable."

Naruto then got to work on the modified seal, he removed the wrapping from the handle of the knives and etched the design into the metal with his finger glowing with chakra. Once the seal was completed he bit into his thumb and spread a bit of his own blood over it. The seal glowed brightly for a moment before fading back into the black of the metal. "There, the next person to channel some of there chakra into the seal will be recognized as the only one who can use this Kunai effectively."

The handles were rewrapped tightly and the knives placed back into their respective containers. The clerk and the older man bade him good-bye after Naruto paid for the items, "if you need anything else, Naruto-sama, please don't hesitate to ask." said Yoroi.

"Absolutely, I'll let you know." He replied, "Eventually I will need another one made like this, in a few years anyway."

Naruto made his way home and entered the house to find his family, and others, in the main sitting room. Hinata was gushing over her clearly embarrassed children while the new teammates of the kids looked on with various expressions from neutral to slightly embarrassed themselves.

"Mom, please stop," muttered Minato. "We are not kids anymore, we are shinobi of the leaf now."

Naruto smirked at the sight and cleared his throat loudly. The other new Genin that seemed to have been invited over all jumped up and greeted him with a bow, "hello Hokage-sama," they seemed to say in unison, as though practiced.

The small blonde boy ran over and jumped up at his father, "hi daddy," and noticing the two boxes in the older blondes hand, "did you bring me anything?"

Naruto chuckled slightly at Jiriayas antics, the boy has been taught by his mother's side of the family in etiquette yet he still is too much like Naruto, at least for his grand-fathers taste. "No sorry this is not for you, yet anyway, though someday you will be getting something like this as well."

He put the six year old down and turned to the new shinobi, "well firstly I want to congratulate you all on your passing the exams, you all have do very well."

Minato and Hana looked slightly embarrassed still, but the other four young genin bowed again and thanked him.

Naruto walked over to his twins and said, "I have something for the two of you, something that I have been waiting to give you for a while now."

They opened the boxes that he handed them and each pulled out a single kunai, Hana was looking her Kunai over, "it's kinda like one of yours, daddy but still it's not."

"Well it's a modified version to it," Naruto explained. "I want you two to make sure that you have the one that is meant for you, your initials should be engraved on the one you hold." The twins looked the blades over and confirmed that they did have their initials on them. "Good now channel a bit of chakra into them."

The kunai both started to glow blue for a moment and then turned back to black again, "What was that?" asked Minato.

"You just activated the seals on them," Naruto responded. "These Kunai can now only be used by you for that technique. Be very careful with them and use only as a last resort. You are shinobi now and you should be able to handle anything that comes your way. But you will be starting missions tomorrow, and there might be a time when you have to use it, though I hope not."

"Thank you father," the two said as one.

Their younger brother was looking at the blades with envious eyes, turning to his father with a pout on his face, "when can I get one of those?"

Naruto smiled gently at his youngest, "not until you graduate, Jiriaya, just like them."

When the night was done and the other genin left for home, Naruto was laying in bed with Hinata resting her head on his chest, "you know Naruto-kun I hope that they never have to use those gifts of yours."

"Me too, Hinata-chan, just as I hope you never have to use the one I gave you."

She sighed, "it's just they grew up so quickly and now they are genin, about to take on possibly dangerous missions."

"We knew that it would happen, Hinata-chan," he said running his fingers through her hair. Naruto then gently moved her head to look in her eyes, and with a grin said, "Hopefully they won't hate me for the kind of missions that they will be taking for a while."

Authors note: please review this story, every review helps. so remember like most writers i am a review junkie. Till nextime, later


	4. Chapter 4

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Four

Naruto sat at the mission assignment table, eyes closes and rubbing the bridge of his nose with his thumb and pointer finger. Beside him sat Shikamaru who was at the moment rifling through some paperwork and rolling his eyes slightly. On his other side sat a Chunin academy teacher, who was watching the scene nervously.

Naruto's current situation made him regret all of the crap that he had given Sarutobi and Tsunade about crappy missions when he was an inexperienced Genin. He felt the warning signs of a migraine as he opened his eyes to see the young, blonde Konoichi complaining loudly.

"But dad, I have had enough of those chores, they aren't even missions," she whined. "I mean, dog walking, baby-sitting…that stuff sucks. We want a real mission."

At this the Jonin behind the three Genin spoke quickly, "I assure you Hokage-sama, Shikamaru-sensei, she does not speak for the entire group."

Naruto waved it off, "don't worry about it Asuma." Naruto, turning to his daughter said, "Hana, firstly despite the fact that you are my child, you don't automatically get better missions…"

"But it's been a month of this…" she interrupted only to be cut off by her father.

"It has been two weeks since you graduated," he sighed. "Hana, I acted the same way and was given my first C-rank mission because of my complaints. I was not ready for it, due to…neglected information it turned into an A-rank in the middle of the mission. My team could have died on many occasions in that mission."

"But I am not asking for an A-rank," she said. "I am just sick and tired of these D-rank 'missions," she finished.

"But you never know what will happen on one," Naruto continued. "Trust me, you are farther along than I was at your age, but you are not ready. You will not get one until your sensei deems you and your team ready." He saw the look on her face and stopped her before she could use the odd power that a daughter seems to hold over her father, "Don't even try it, Hana. I am saying this as your Hokage, not as our father. I will not send anyone on a potentially dangerous mission needlessly, it is not me being over-protective, just the way that it has to be."

She raised no further objections to it, but looked disappointed when assigned a 'mission' of delivering some supplies for the hospital.

When the missions where all assigned Naruto turned to his friend and said, "damn this job is such a headache sometimes. At least my son had not caused that much trouble," he smiled slightly, "Hana is too much like me at times."

Shikamaru smirked, "Your son may not have caused a scene, but when team 9 was in here is could see Shikara itching to do the same. She is as troublesome as her mother."

Naruto wagged his finger at the lazy Nara, "careful, you don't want that to get back to Temari," he chuckled.

"Whatever," Shikamaru muttered, but Naruto noticed the look of slight fear in his eyes, as though expecting a giant fan to crack him in the head.

Naruto looked at the clock, "well it's lunch, you got any plans?"

"Yeah, going to meet Chouji for some BBQ…wanna come?"

Naruto thought about it a moment, "well I was going to get some ramen, but yeah, BBQ sounds good too."

The two left the tower, and made their way to Chouji's favorite eatery. They found the large man sitting waiting for his best friend, already eating.

When he spotted Naruto, smiled, and grabbed the blonde's hand into a bone-crushing grip. "Naruto, hey nice of you to join us."

Naruto shrugged after Chouji let go and tried to rub some feeling back into his hand, "Yeah I didn't feel like eating alone today."

They all sat and ate; Naruto talked a bit of how 'troublesome' it was assigning missions to his kids.

Chouji meanwhile chuckled, "I think you are working too much with Shikamaru, I never thought that I would hear you, of all people, talking like that Naruto."

Naruto laughed and Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "please he is not nearly lazy enough to be compared to me."

"That's not really something to take pride in," said a voice approaching the table.

The three looked up to see Temari standing there with a smirk on her face. Naruto immediately stood up and motioned to Shikamaru, the two swapped seats so that Naruto now sitting next to Chouji left the other side of the booth free for Temari and Shikamaru. The group ate and chatted a bit, but Naruto fell into a silence and at this point just listened to his friends.

Chouji remarked on his silence, "Naruto, what's wrong man?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?"

"Your being kinda quiet, it's unnerving," Chouji replied. "Is there something on your mind?"

Naruto shrugged, "I guess. I don't know, I have been thinking about something for a while now, but am just unsure about it."

"What?" asked Temari joining the exchange.

"Well…" Naruto started slowly. "Well I think it may be time to move on."

"Move on?" questioned Chouji.

Naruto nodded, "yeah, recently I've been thinking about resigning, stepping down as Hokage."

The other three sat in a shocked silence as response, Shikamaru spoke after a moment, "Retire? But why, it was your dream to be Hokage. Why would you give it up?"

Naruto replied, "true but I achieved my dream, I have been doing this for over 12 years now. I have a family and the respect that I wanted, but I would be selfish if I kept the position for too long, after all there are others waiting for it." He smiled as he thought of one in particular. "Besides, I miss the feeling of missions and doing more to protect this village and help the people."

Temari shook her head, "no, Naruto, that sound selfish if you ask me."

Naruto cocked his head, "What's that mean?"

Temari explained, "You have brought, not only this village to new heights of prosperity, but others as well. Suna for instance is benefiting more from the alliance than ever before. Your people are happy and safe, and you would turn this over to another person so you can relive the glory days?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "damn when you say it all like that, I do come off as the bastard here." He then spoke seriously, "but if you think about it, I am not the only one behind these alliances, Shikamaru here was really key in figuring out how it would work…"

Shikamaru interrupted, "if you are suggesting that I be named Hokage, forget it. It's too troublesome."

Naruto smirked, "no I wasn't saying it should be you, all I'm saying is that I can't do this forever. since the people trust me and my judgment I should name a successor that would continue on my work for this, someone that if I trust, the people will trust can continue on the prosperity that has been made. I am after all just a small part of that, there is so much more to it than just me."

Chouji finished chewing his mouthful of food, "that makes sense, actually."

"Yeah I guess it does," said Temari. "Just think about it, ok? Make sure that you choose someone who would do that."

They finished up the food and Naruto had to get back to work with Shikamaru. They worked the rest of the day without saying another word on the subject that Naruto brought up during lunch.

This was something that he has been thinking about for a while now. But Temari was right, this wasn't something that could be just done right away. As Naruto found himself walking home, a smile came to his face, he needed to talk with Hinata about this. He valued her opinion on many problems and on this he could trust her completely.

As Naruto entered the house, he noticed it was fairly quiet. Normally Jiriaya was running around and made things much more lively. Today it was as though there was no one else home.

Minato and Hana could still be on their 'missions', but where would Hinata and Jiriaya be? Naruto looked around the house and found no one downstairs, thinking to himself that he could look upstairs he spotted people in the back yard.

Walking out of the back door say Jiriaya playing with Uchiha Yuri, Sasuke was there for some reason watching the two kids. Naruto shrugged at it but walked up to his friend, "What's up Teme?"

"Hm," Sasuke replied.

"Why are you here? Is Hinata out with Sakura or something?" Naruto smirked, "and you got stuck with baby-sitting?"

"No, actually Sakura and Hinata are upstairs," Sasuke replied quietly. "Hinata is being examined."

Naruto began to worry, "examined, for what? What's wrong?"

Sasuke looked at him, "relax, she said she was just feeling ill, Sakura just wanted to be sure."

Naruto had already gone inside, and bolted up the stairs. He made it to his bedroom door and found it closed and locked. In knocking on the door, it was shortly opened by an annoyed looking Sakura.

Her expression softened and turned to a slight smile, "Geez, baka, keep it down. Your wife is resting now."

"Why what's wrong?" he asked nervously.

"Well…" Sakura started evasively, "not my place to say, she should tell you. Doctor-patient confidentiality and all." Sakura opened the door and allowed him inside. She gathered up her equipment and said, "ok Hinata, you seem fine, but I want you to come in to the office in a couple weeks, ok?"

"Hai," Hinata nodded simply sitting up in the bed.

After Sakura left, Naruto sat on the bed next to his wife, "so, Hinata-chan. Sakura said you where ok, but why check you out anyway?"

"Well," she started. "I called her over, I was feeling really ill today."

Naruto nodded, "the teme said something about you feeling sick as well, but you never get sick. The only times I ever saw you like this was…" Naruto stopped talking abruptly as a look on comprehension crossed his face, he looked questioningly at his wife, eyes wide. "I-is it…R-really?"

Hinata smiled slightly and just nodded.

Authors note: Please review I don't want to be the person that says 'I want 10 reviews or there will be no new posts' but I would really appreciate it. After all the best part of writing these fics is to see feedback on what others think. So if you can review.


	5. Chapter 5

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Five

"Another one!?" exclaimed Kiba, with a grin on his face. "What, three wasn't enough for you?"

"Damn it Kiba, shut your mouth," muttered Sasuke, rubbing his right temple. "Sometimes you are almost a bad as the dope."

"Hey I resent that, Teme," Naruto said indignantly.

Naruto was out with his friends for a drink, he had just gotten through telling them what had happened. Hinata and Naruto had already told her family about the new pregnancy, and they where now sharing it with their closest friends.

Hinata's family loved the news, Hanabi and their cousin Hana, where ecstatic about it. Naruto would have commented on Hanabi's response to all of her sister's children, and pointed out the fact that for someone who seemed to love children and little babies, she sure was not in any rush to have any of her own.

But Naruto had said quite a lot of stupid things in his life, and opted to keep his mouth shut in this case. After all, he liked his head when it was attached to his body, and from what Kawazu had said, Hanabi could have quite the temper.

Haishi had commented on that. He was happy for another grandchild, in his own way though not quite as exuberant as Hana and Hanabi, he congratulated the couple. Haishi also took the moment to point out to his youngest daughter that she was not a child, she was not even married. He even no longer brought attention to what he was sure was happening in his youngest daughter's private life.

The truth of the matter still remained; Hinata refused the role of clan leader. It now fell to Hanabi, and though Haishi still had a few good years left in him, it seemed that perhaps it would be a good time to make sure that Hanabi had an heir.

'Perhaps I have been a bit to lenient with her,' Haishi would find himself thinking often. But still it was his wife's dying wish that their daughters could chose their lives for them selves. It was difficult enough to convince his wife, while she was still pregnant no less, to set up a marriage with the Fourth's unborn son, and how beneficial that would be to the village and the clan.

The marriage was never finalized, but Haishi smiled a rare smile whenever he saw his grandchildren. In his own mind he maintained that, where his wife still alive, to see those children would put to rest any problems she had about the arrangement. That and the fact that his daughter and her husband found each other anyway, when at the time they didn't even know that could have been.

'So much has changed,' he would say to himself when he 'spoke' with his late wife. 'Perhaps I am still old fashioned, but in my day a leader of the clan would not be allowed to make it to almost thirty years without a suitable spouse. I know I wasn't.'

Perhaps it was this old-fashioned thinking that prevented him from accepting the offer his son-in-law extended about going out for a few drinks. Kami only knows what kind of things he would have to endure, had he gone.

Back with his friends, a mixture of words bombarded Naruto. Some congratulatory, others sympathetic (though he ignored that), others still where dubious.

"So, this one was planned?" Kiba said with a grin, "or do you just go at it so often that is was bound to happen again sometime?"

Naruto spat out a little but of his drink, "What the hell kind of question was that?" he sputtered, wiping himself and a bit of the table off. He sighed, "Not that it's any of your business, but no it was not planned. Not that I'm complaining at all, you know how I grew up, to be I say the bigger the family the better."

"So then, it is that you and Hinata…" Kiba started again.

Naruto cut him off, "hey it may not have been planned, but I am not talking about, or even confirming anything about my sex-life." He looked around, "besides there are people here that I don't think would want to hear about it, even if I did talk about it."

Neji was there and his eye's narrowed, "Naruto is right…I would really rather not hear about it."

"Hey," Kiba said defensively. "She is like a sister to me and I have no problem hearing about it."

"That sounded a bit wrong, Kiba." Muttered Sasuke.

Another week had passed and Naruto was once again listening to his daughter gripe about the chores that where being passed off as missions.

"But dad, how am I supposed to get better if I never get any experience," she would whine.

Naruto would then turn to the younger Jonin and ask if he thought that they were ready for a higher ranked mission.

This day was different, the young Sarutobi thought about it a moment. "Well, Hokage-sama, these there are indeed improving. They are working more fluidly together, and completing the D-rank missions much more efficiently."

As he was saying this even the Aburame boy's eyebrows raised hopefully. Hana was looking from her Sensei to her father, with her eyes wide and shimmering.

Naruto smiled a bit, "so you think they are ready then?"

Asuma nodded slowly, "Yes sir, I do believe that they are."

A huge grin had broken out on Hana's face. Naruto shrugged and sighed, "I guess it had to happen sometime. Alright I'll trust your judgment Asuma."

Naruto nodded to Shikamaru who was, as usual, sitting next to him. Shikamaru flipped through a stack of files in front of him. Picking one from the group, he silently handed it to Naruto.

Naruto looked it over, "well this one could work." Turning back to the Genin team, "this mission is a simple one, there are several border patrol squads in various locations surrounding Konoha. They have a bit more time before their relief gets sent out. We have received word from several of them that their supplies are running a bit low. They can and do hunt for food, but there are other essentials."

The Genin were silent when they listened to him, and Naruto continued. "This mission is to bring them supplies that they need, other necessary foods that they cannot scrounge out there, and various other things. You will be protecting the cargo from possible bandits, is that ok with you?"

The Genin nodded and responded in unison, "Hai."

Naruto nodded, "ok." He stamped and signed the form then handing a folded paper to Asuma, "this is the map of their stationed locations, you leave in two hours form the west gate. The supplies will be there for you. Go directly west first, stop at that camp, then head north, circle the village hitting the other camps as you make your way back to the east gate. This mission should take about a week."

They nodded and turned to leave, in order to pack. "Hana, wait a sec," Naruto called out.

The young blonde girl turned back, "thanks by the way daddy."

Naruto nodded, "it is only fair, after all I sent your brothers team on their first c-rank today."

"What? You sent Minato before me?" she cried out, "what is he doing?"

"Same thing, only they start at east gate and circle around the south way," he said with a sigh. "And before you start, I am only doing this because both your Sensei's think you ready for it." But remember to be careful, ok? And say bye to your mother, you don't want her to worry do you?"

Later on in the day, Minato's team had already departed. Minato, Hito, and Shikara where walking in formation along with Mayte. Hito was in front, Minato and Shikara traveled side-by-side with their sensei bringing up the rear.

They all had an extra pack at their sides that where filled with sealing scrolls that held the supplies they where required to deliver. The team had already delivered to the first camp and planned to reach the second camp by nightfall.

"This is so boring," muttered the Nara girl walking next to Minato. "The only difference between this and the other d-ranked we had so far is that it is longer."

Mayte chuckled, "well what did you expect? The mission parameters stated that the only possible problems we might encounter are thieves and the like. And seeing as we are still in the land of the village, thieves would have to get by the border patrols that we are delivering to."

She turned back to her sensei, "so you mean that nothing is gonna happen?" she asked, looking disappointed.

Mayte shook his head, "no that's not what I am saying. What I am saying is that, chances are nothing will happen, but that is no reason to lax your guard. After all, this is an important mission."

Mayte saw his students give different reactions, Shikara rolled her eyes and scoffed, Minato looked back with his eyebrows raised questioningly, and Hito did not look back at his but shook his head a bit. "Think what you want," said Mayte. "The fact remained that we are ensuring that the patrols that keep our village safe can continue to do their job."

The group continued on and twilight was settling around them. They soon reached the second camp where they found a single Jonin at work laying tinder and twigs into a pit that was dug into the ground and surrounded with stone.

The man looked up at the noise and Shikara ran up to him, "Uncle I haven't seen you in a week."

The man stood up, he was tall and powerfully built, a bit chubby but the muscle was also evident. He had a bewildered look on his face as the young girl hugged him, which turned to a smile as he said, "Shikara-chan, I can't believe that you're here. The fact that your father and Naruto allowed you on an actual mission, how did you talk them into it?"

Mayte walked toward him, "Chouji, hello. Are you here by yourself? Should there not be others here?"

"There are," Chouji replied. "We have been here a week and have another week to go. Sai and Shino are scouting around a bit more before we camp for the night. So are you here with some supplies?"

Shikara nodded and pulled some scrolls from her pack, "Yes, here they are."

Another smile broke out over Chouji's face, "Oh man, you guys are life-savers. I never liked scrounging for food if I could help it."

There was another noise in the trees, the group there turned to see Shino and Sai entering the campsite. Sai looked over the group and said with a smile, "oh company?"

The group all camped out for the night, talking softly and giving news from the village. Chouji asked mostly about his wife, who was a non-Konoichi villager, and son, Chouzan. The others where told by Minato that his mother was pregnant, Shino said virtually nothing but if his face wasn't hidden there would have seen a slight smile on his face.

Sai laughed a bit, "Well Naruto continues to prove me wrong in my initial opinion of him." That comment was lost on the younger children and Chouji took over the conversation before Sai could elaborate.

In the woods to the northwest of the village there was another camp, in that camp the Genin where resting while a gray-haired, masked Jonin was sulking due to the young blonde girl calling him 'old-man'.

Kakashi continuously insisted that she stopped doing that, he would saw that he was not 'that' old. The girl would retaliate by pointing out his age.

Another of the Jonin was sitting there with a slight smile on his scarred face. He was happy to here of Naruto and Hinata's news. "That kid sure is building himself a great family," he said as his 'grand-daughter' told him what had happened.

Iruka continued to smile as Hana expressed her wishes that this be a girl, as she wanted a little sister. He frowned slightly when she said, "because as far as I'm concerned I have two brothers too many." He frowned despite the non-seriousness of that statement, after all they where her siblings.

The camp went on to sleep and Asuma decided to allow the other Jonin rest and take first watch, even though he was not meant for relief.

A couple miles away, outside the borders of the village, there where two men in the shadows of the trees.

"Do we hit them now?" asked one to the other.

The other slightly shorter man there shook his head, "no, we can't be too hasty."

"But two of our targets are there," replied the first. "How do you think the boss will react if he hears that we could have gotten them and they slipped through our fingers?"

The second man there replied, "not nearly as bad as if we attack and fail, alerting them to our intentions prematurely." He sighed, "they have Kakashi there, and say what you will, I don't have a death wish. No we wait until the best possible time."

The first man shrugged his shoulders and seemed to agree, settling him self in for some rest.

Please review it is much apreciated thanks


	6. Chapter 6

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Six

Team nine was traveling through the woods heading to Konoha's west gate upon completion of their mission. They had dropped off the sealed supplies to the various camps on the border patrol detail.

Minato was walking along side Shikara, hands in his pockets and looking around. It had been a boring mission. The only difference between this one and the D-rank missions that they had done up until now was the length of it.

Shikara was twirling a kunai on her finger and talking to her friend while he stayed silent. She complained, quite vocally, about how crappy the mission was. Minato got a small smile on his face as she complained about her father for suggesting this mission to Minato's father, the Hokage.

"I should have known better than to think that, my father being advisor to yours, would get us good missions." She huffed, "those two where probably protecting us, I hate that they think we are incapable of handling other things, we're shinobi now."

Hito, who was leading the group, shook his head. Minato didn't need to activate his Byakugan to be able to tell that the other boy was probably rolling his eyes. Unfortunately, for Hito, Shikara caught his silent disparagement of her comments, "You got a problem, Hito?" she questioned glaring at his back.

Hito turned back and caught her glare, shaking his head again he turned back to face forward, "nope."

Mayte watched this interaction of his students, thinking to himself that he should step in before things escalated.

Shikara, still glaring at the other boys back, "if you have something to say, please, I'm all ears."

Hito slowed to a stop, turned and addressed the blonde Konoichi, "alright, you want to know what I think? I think that you are acting more like a child than a shinobi."

"What?"

"You keep going on about how you are being protected, your not. Hokage-sama and Chief-advisor Shikamaru are not protecting you. They are also not showing us any favoritism just because their children are on this team." He paused and took a breath, as though he had been itching to say this for a while. "We are being treated just like any other newly formed Genin team. So what are you really upset at?" He then nodded knowingly, "I see now, you are upset because 'daddy' isn't showing his little girl favoritism."

Shikara's mouth was open in shock, and then anger started to cross her face. Before she could explode on the boy, Mayte spoke up. "Enough you two. Shikara, Hito is right the Hokage is not showing us favoritism, and you should not expect it just because his son is on this team." He then looked at Hito, "and Hito, you could have relayed your thoughts in a more tactful way."

The two Genin stood silent for a moment, "Yes, sensei" they then said together.

"Good, then lets carry on." Mayte said, "We should be back in the village by days end. And I don't know about you, but I could use a shower."

Throughout the whole exchange, surprisingly an Uzukami kept quiet.

The team continued walking and for the next few hours, they all said little. Shikara kept herself occupied but continuing to shoot glowering looks at Hito's back, who of course, saw none of it.

When they still had another couple hours to go before they reached home, Mayte suddenly stopped. He was shifting his gaze from side to side, taking in all of the surroundings. His eyes went wide for a moment then, almost automatically; he pulled several shurikin from his pouch and fired them off in the direction of his students.

Minato heard the weapons approaching, whistling through the air as they made their way toward his back. He turned his head to see the shurikin that his sensei threw, and was about to deflect the sudden attack.

Before the 'attack' could be stopped, the thrown weapons that Mayte launched off intercepted several kunai that where heading for Minato's and Shikara's backs.

The metal objects rang off of each other, drawing the attention of the other two Genin as they fell to the ground.

Minato soon had his Byakugan active and was scanning the area. To either side of the path that they where traveling was a shinobi in the trees. They were both garbed in black clothes that had the same complex pattern on their backs, matching as though uniforms. They wore no markings that tied them to any one village. But the uniforms suggested that they must have an affiliation with some group of shinobi, more than likely a group of exiled or missing nin.

He turned to Mayte, who had a questioning look in his eyes, as though asking for confirmation to what he already knew. They both nodded to each other, quickly.

Mayte called out to his team, finding it was now pointless to remain quiet. "Formation one," he said simply.

The four of them all leapt into position their backs to each other, eyes looking out into all directions. Minato's eyes scanning all the blind spots that the rest missed.

He inclined his head to Mayte and spoke quietly, "there are two of them, sensei. One on either side of this path in the trees."

Mayte nodded at the confirmed information, "they were waiting to ambush us. The question now is, what do they want?"

Several kunai flew from the trees on Minato's side of the defensive positions, his eyes quickly picked out the odd one from the rest. The boy pulled out one of his own kunai and deflected the three normal kunai, there was one that was heading directly for Shikara's back.

Minato timed it perfectly, hooked his finger through the loop on the end of the explosive tag wrapped kunai when it was inches from his friends back, whipped it back around and flung in to the exact spot from where it had come.

The kunai entered the trees and exploded, the fireball engulfed the area it hit sending metal shrapnel of the weapon into the trees.

Mayte saw the exchange and knew that it would be too much to hope that whoever threw that Kunai was caught in the blast. He also realized something else, who ever was in the trees was targeting Minato and Shikara, specifically. All the attempts so far were on those two particularly. That worried him more, who would be attempting to assassinate the Hokage's first-born son? This was essentially a declaration of war.

What Shikara had to do with it, Mayte didn't know, but someone was actively trying to disrupt the peace that Naruto had worked for. And the fact that whomever it was managed to get past the border patrol and attack within the borders of the village, did nothing to settle his unease.

The two in the woods kept sending small groups of kunai at the group from various angles and locations, most of which where deflected by the teams own weapons.

Suddenly there where more kunai flying at them then even Minato could count, coming from both directions. There was no way that the boy would be able to block them all.

The all still readied them selves to try. But before the kunai could reach them all, a wall of sand sprung up around them, shielding them from the onslaught. Minato looked to his friend to find Shikara standing there, arms slightly raised and her face growing red from exertion.

She didn't lower he shield, and it was a close thing too. Had she lowered it there would be nothing blocking the bulk of the explosion as the few kunai wrapped in explosive tags, detonated.

The shock wave from the tags obliterated the wall and knocked her back and onto the ground. The next moment she was on the ground looking up to see a stranger heading toward her. Shikara was trying to bring about more sand to protect herself, but was dazed and not fast enough.

The next this she knew was pain, horrible pain, as the attacker stomped viciously on her chest. She felt a couple ribs crack, and cried out. Her cry was muffled, however, by the fact that she was also coughing up blood.

Minato watched, as though in slow motion, the attacker left his friend and flung himself at Minato. He was frozen in fear and anger, and was therefore saved by Mayte, who grabbed the enemy nin, and pushed him roughly into a tree, pinning him with his hand to the mans throat. There was a sickening crunch when the hit the tree.

Mayte let go of his throat and the man fell to the ground, the Jonin deftly pinned him to the tree with wire pulled from his pack. He turned his gaze to where the other man was in the trees to find the area vacant. The other had fled as far as Mayte could figure.

He called out to his students, "Minato can you scan the area? I think the other is gone but he could be masking his presence. Hito watch Shikara."

He received no answer from the Uzumaki, and turned back to see him kneeling at his friend's side and Hito was standing over her as well, a somber look on his face. Mayte walked back to them, and startled the young shinobi when he placed his hand on Minato's shoulder.

Minato looked up at his sensei, anger in his eyes. Mayte let go of the boy but spoke, "Minato I need you to look and make sure that the other truly left."

The boy nodded and activated his Byakugan, after a few moments the veins around his eyes disappeared. He said roughly, "No sensei, there is no one there anymore."

Hito knelt down at the girl's side as well, despite how annoying and spoiled this girl acted, she needed help. He placed two fingers on her neck and then spoke, "she is alive, but weakened and unconscious. She needs medical attention, but judging by the way she was hit I don't think it is a good idea to move her, especially since we have to travel for a while still."

He smiled in his own mind, but kept his own face neutral. Being the son of a medic nin was useful, while his mother was not as accomplished as Uchiha Sakura, he still picked a couple of things up.

"Well we need to get her help fast, but how could we do it?" Mayte mused mostly to himself.

Those words broke Minato out of his reverie, he said nothing but reached into his pouch and pulled an odd kunai triple bladed out. The kunai glowed blue for a moment and Minato threw it into the ground near them.

Mayte, seeing the kunai breathed a sigh of relief. They would be getting help soon.

Back in the village of Konoha, in the Hokage tower, the blonde man sitting at the desk felt one of his kunai's seals be activated. His head jerked up and caught the attention of his advisor.

"What's up?" asked Shikamaru.

Naruto thought for a moment and said, "One of my children activated their seal that I gave them, they know that it is a last resort and are probably in danger."

The Nara's face drained of color, "w-which one was it?"

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not sure, but they need help if they did. Shikamaru, find Kawazu, tell him that I may be setting up one of his transport points, he is to be ready if he is needed."

Shikamaru nodded and Naruto vanished out of the window racing to a certain point in the village. The advisor called for the guards outside the door and told them to bring Kawazu to the office immediately. He then slumped down into his chair, deciding against letting his wife know for now.

Naruto did not immediately go off to the point of the kunai, there was one thing he had to do. If one of them activated that seal then chances where that there could already be injury sustained. As Naruto was hopeless in medical-jutsus he soon was at the hospital.

He burst through the doors and went right up to the receptionist; the woman looked up at what caused the noise, "H-Hokage-sama, what can I do for you?"

Naruto rushed to the desk and all but shouted, "I need Uchiha Sakura, immediately."

There was another voice that interrupted him, "Please, Naruto keep quiet, this is a hospital after all."

Naruto turned to see Ino walking toward him, clipboard in hand, wearing a slight scowl on her face. "Ino this is urgent, I need Sakura." He said turning to the woman.

She cocked her had at him, "It's her day off. Why do you need her anyway?"

"There is an urgent rescue mission, and I need a medic-nin."

Ino shook her head, "Naruto, you baka, she can't go on any missions. Did you forget that you pulled her from active duty? She's pregnant." As she said this Naruto's face fell with memory of that. Ino continued, "but if you need a medic, I can help if you want."

Naruto's face lit up, "that's right, you're a medic too." He ran up to her and put his arms around her, pulling Ino close.

Her eyes went wide then angry, "Naruto, what the hell do you think you are…"

He last words were cut off as the pair of them vanished in a flash on yellow light, leaving the clipboard she was holding clattering to the floor. And the receptionist, along with other onlookers, open mouthed.

Among those onlookers was a certain dark haired woman, whose eyes narrowed at the sight of Naruto grabbing Ino like that. 'Oh, he will be hearing about this one later' she thought, as she was leaving the hospital after an appointment with the vary woman who was just snatched.

Miles away, the two blondes materialized in the woods. Ino quickly pushed Naruto away, "I swear, if you ever do anything like that again, I'll kill you, baka." She said as she tried to get her bearings.

There was a voice that drew the attention of the two new arrivals, "Dad, she's hurt."

Naruto and Ino looked down to where the voice came from. Ino's face went pale, "Shikara…" she muttered. The medic was soon at the girl's side, running a quick diagnostic. When she was done she straitened up. "Ok I will forgive you this time Naruto, this is serious. She has three cracked ribs and a lacerated lung, we need to get her to the hospital, as soon as possible."

"What can she handle?" asked Naruto, concerned for the girl.

"If you are thinking about that jutsu of yours, you can forget it," Ino said sharply. "She is very weak right now, the shock of going through that could very well kill her."

Naruto nodded, "then there is another way." He quickly pulled a scroll from his pack, unfurling it, he laid it on the ground and focused some charka into it. The scroll started glowing, and in a few moments there was a burst of smoke. When it cleared, Kawazu was standing there, next to a man sized toad.

"Kawazu, good." Naruto said, "it looks like you got Shikamaru's message."

The tall, white haired man, nodded. "Hai, Naruto-sempai."

Naruto motioned to the young girl on the ground, "can you transport her and Ino safely to the hospital?"

Kawazu nodded again, "of course."

Ino spoke up, "you have to take extra care to make sure she is not shaken up." To which Kawazu nodded a third time.

The toad 'swallowed' the young girl then turned to Ino, who grimaced when it's tongue wrapped around her waist.

When Kawazu and the toad disappeared, Naruto turned to Mayte, "so what happened here?"

Mayte explained the encounter and as he went on Naruto's face grew darker and his frown deeper.

When he was finished Naruto turned to the unconscious man, bound to the tree. "We will take him to Sasuke, we have to find out what is going on here, and if anyone can get it out of him it's Sasuke."

Authors note: well I am happy with this chapter, if I do say so my self. Please review again it is appreciated as always. Thanks.

P.S. you will also notice that the type of story was changed to family from romance i will change it to family in the next posting


	7. Chapter 7

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Seven

It was dark, and quiet. There was a man falling in and out of conciseness, bound to a chair in the middle of a poorly lit room. His eyes were opening slightly, trying to adjust to the lack of light.

The captive man tried to get a layout of his surroundings. His chest hurt, no doubt from either bruised or possibly cracked ribs. The man attempted to move, and soon found that his hands were tied behind his back and to the chair, which was secured to the ground.

He cleared the blurriness from his vision and again took tally of the room he was in. There were no windows, and only one heavy, reinforced door, as far as he could see.

His mind was working faster now. The mission, he had failed the mission, and worse still, he was captive. He wondered if his partner was also captive, in a similar situation, or if he or his partner had given anything away.

He thought hard. No, he didn't recall anything since that bastard slammed him into the tree. Hopefully he was only out of it for a short while; they wouldn't be able to get anything out of his in that time.

After all, the boss wouldn't like that, not one bit.

The captive man tested his restraints and smiled a bit to himself. These would prove to be easy to slip out of, hell a newly minted Genin could get out of this. But before he released himself he looked around again, damn it if there wasn't a way out aside from that door.

Said door suddenly opened, and another man entered the room. The new comers face caught a bit of the light. The captive's eyes widened as he recognized the man, 'Oh shit.'

There really was no way out of this any more, not with 'him'. He had no choice had to do 'that'. The captive fumbled with his tongue for a moment against the side of his mouth. He found his objective and, audibly swallowed.

The effect was almost instantaneous his body began to convulse. He was barely aware of rapid footsteps, and a hand gripping his hair, roughly forcing his head back.

He caught sight of a pair of red eyes peering into his. The malice of those eyes would have caused him to shiver and flinch, were he not already shaking uncontrollably. He heard a voice, distant and forced calm. "Who are you, what is your goal?"

The words escaped the captive's mouth before he was able to stifle himself, "the decedents…" He stopped talking, his shuddering making it impossible to say anything else remotely coherent. The captive man then fell limp and still.

Sasuke let go of the prisoner's hair and straitened up, he sighed and shook his head. He reached for the mans neck and felt for a pulse, there was none to be found. "Damn it," he muttered to himself, "The dope is not going to like this."

The Uchiha's eyes faded back to black; he walked back to the door. Knocking on it and calling out to the guards, the door opened.

Sasuke jerked his thumb over his shoulder, back into the room. "He is to be taken to the morgue, the Hokage is going to need a full work up and autopsy results in his office."

The young guard bowed to him, "Hai, Uchiha-sama."

Sasuke made his way out of the basement, and climbed the stairs to the top of the tower, where he knew Naruto would be waiting for his report on the interrogation of the prisoner.

He was a bit more than upset with himself. His Sharingan had never failed to get the information that he needed out of anyone that he used it on. It was true that Sasuke sometimes did not need to use it, opting for other ways. Hell he even outshined his predecessor to the title of Head of Interrogation.

But the Sharingan, when used, never failed, until now… then again, he also never had a prisoner die in the middle of an interrogation.

Sasuke found himself outside of the Hokage office; nodding to the guards he knocked and entered.

Naruto was standing at the window, overlooking the village. He was talking with Kawazu and Mayte, who were sitting in front of his desk. The three of them cut off their discussion as Sasuke entered the room, not surprised to find that Shikamaru was absent.

The blonde Kage turned and gave his old friend a strained kind of smile, "so, what did you find out?"

"Not much," Sasuke said grudgingly. Naruto's eyebrows rose in surprise, "the prisoner is dead," he clarified.

"Dead?" Naruto asked, "What the hell did you kill him for, Teme?"

Sasuke shook his head, "he was dying when I entered the room. I've ordered an autopsy already, but I only managed to get a couple of words out of him. I asked him who he was and what his goal was, and he said, 'the decedents'. Then he died."

"The decedents?" said Kawazu. "So is the attacker part of 'the decedents' or is that their target?"

"I can't be sure," Sasuke admitted.

The door to the office opened again, a young medic darted into the room. He bowed to Naruto and then spoke, "Hokage-sama, the initial report of the deceased prisoner show a false, hollow tooth. The autopsy is still underway, but we believe that it held some type of poison. My superior felt that you should know this now, and we will have official results as to identity and cause of death shortly." The medic said this all quickly, hardly drawing breath.

Naruto frowned, and then he started to pace behind his desk. Turning to the young medic, "Thanks for the information, get the rest of the results to me when you can. Don't rush it, take your time and make sure nothing is missed."

The Medic bowed himself out and hurried from the room.

Mayte spoke, "he is probably right, Sensei. The man killed himself to prevent us form getting any useful information."

"Well that makes thinks potentially worse," Sasuke put it. "After all, what are they after that is so important that he was willing to take his own life to protect the secret? That they would attack a rookie Genin squad, with the intent to kill?"

"You're right Sasuke," Kawazu said. "I can understand trying to kidnap Minato or Shikara. After all, their families would do what it took to get them back. But either way, whether it was kidnapping or intent to kill this is more or less an act of war."

"With that reasoning, I don't think the attacker is affiliated with any other village. Most likely a group of missing nin banded together. Like the Akatsuki was," Sasuke said.

Naruto listened to his friends talking, and gave an involuntary shudder at the word 'Akatsuki'. After a moments silence, he nodded once, as though confirming something to himself, "Right. Mayte," he said suddenly.

"Hai," the Jonin responded.

"You said that there were two attackers, that right?" Naruto asked.

"Hai," Mayte confirmed. "The second one ran once his partner was dispatched."

"Then I'm sorry, I have another mission for you," Naruto said. "You and Kawazu will go in a three man squad; I will have Inuzuka Kemonoi waiting at the west gate. Go to the place you were attacked. Hopefully he can track the scent of the one who ran, to some kind of base."

The two man nodded, and Naruto continued. "Kawazu, observe and investigate, you are to report back in a week with your findings, but keep me posted. So the two of you go home and get ready, pack as normal, and meet Kemonoi at west gate in an hour."

"Hai," the two men said in unison, and vanished from the room.

Naruto had one of his guards go to inform his old Inuzuka student of the mission after the two had left.

"Do you really think that this will work?" Sasuke asked when just the two of them were in the office. "Tracking them and getting the information, I mean?"

Naruto shrugged, "whether I think it will work or not, is not the point. This is our only lead since the other one seems to have killed himself before you could get any information out of him."

"Yes, I suppose I would have obtained more information if he didn't do that," Sasuke said in an offhand voice.

"You suppose?" Naruto said shrewdly. "Of course you would have gotten it. Those eyes of yours have never failed to see the truth and draw it out."

Sasuke stared at his friend for a moment, he then smirked. "Naruto, sometimes I keep forgetting just how much you have changed. Then at times like now, you show just how much you have changed from when you were the dead last." He paused, "But you will always be a dope to me."

"What brought that on?" Naruto scowled, he then broke into a grin. "But to be fair you will always be a heartless teme to me."

The statement earned a slight glare from the Uchiha. Naruto continued, "every one has to grow up sometime, Sasuke. When I was a kid I could have said I would be Hokage until I was blue in the face, but do you really see that guy doing this job?"

Sasuke said nothing, and Naruto sighed. "It wasn't until I heard that Jiriaya had died that I really started to change. I remember talking with Shikamaru, we had gone to see Kurenai-sensei. Shikamaru had said something that really got me thinking. He had said, referring to her then unborn son, that he would be that kids sensei someday."

"That's what got me thinking," Naruto continued. "If a lazy jerk like Shikamaru could plan for the future, keeping a promise he made to Asuma-sensei, then what the hell was I doing? I needed to grow up, if I was going to make good on my goals."

Sasuke cocked his head, "what brought this on?"

Naruto smirked, "you said that I was a dope to you. I wanted to make it clear to you, I couldn't be, and no longer am, the baka that I was when we became team 7."

"YOU INCREDIBLE BAKA!" a very familiar, and obviously angry voice was the next thing heard in the office. It was the only warning that the two shinobi had before the doors flew open, close to being knocked clean off of its hinges.

In the door way stood a seething Sakura. The moment she saw Naruto, her fist tightened, cocked back and started glowing blue. She then charged her old teammate, "Do you have any idea of what you have done!?"

Naruto's eyes went wide, he had not seen her so pissed at him in years. Before her attack could connect, he dodged it, side stepping her assault, which caused her to stumble past him her fist making contact with his desk, which burst into a pile of splinters.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" Naruto cried out waving his arms in front of himself, in a way of begging her to stop.

"What's wrong?" she shouted, "don't give me that crap!"

Naruto turned desperately to his friend, "Sasuke you want to help…" only to see that the teme was no longer in the room. Turning back to Sakura with his eye twitching, Naruto muttered, "oh, you damned traitor."

Sakura was charging up for another shot, "it's about time that someone taught you a lesson, baka."

Naruto dodged her, once again, "lesson? What are you talking about Sakura? Please calm down, you are pregnant after all, isn't it bad for the child to get too stressed?"

"Bad for the pregnancy?" Sakura spat, "you weren't thinking about that before, considering what you did to Hinata!" She shouted and charged him again, this time Naruto froze, her powered fist inches from colliding with his face when he snapped back.

Naruto's arm sprang up, grabbed her by the wrist and held her fists away from himself. Sakura made to get him with the other fist, but Naruto deflected that attack as well.

Naruto now had her by both wrists, and said to her, in a more commanding tone than anyone ever heard him use, "Enough! What did I do to Hinata-chan? Just what the hell are you talking about Sakura?"

The charka faded from Sakura's hands. She was still glaring at Naruto, but saw in his eyes that he really had no clue what she was talking about.

"You know Naruto, you may have changed a lot but you do still have your moments of absolute stupidity." She said this as Naruto released her wrists, and her hands found themselves on her hips. Naruto was still staring wearily at her, as though expecting another outburst.

"Ok," Naruto said, "so what is this all about? And what is wrong with my wife?"

Sakura sighed, "She saw you, baka. With what you did in the hospital with Ino, Hinata was there for a check-up."

Naruto cocked his head, "so what does that have to do with anything? I needed a medic nin and Ino was there. What I did is the only way that I could have gotten her to where she needed to go fast."

Sakura had calmed down, "I know that, and deep down I think Hinata knows that too. But it's the way that you grabbed Ino. It really upset her, she came to my house, sobbing. I managed to calm her down enough to get her home. She is sleeping now, after that I came here…"

"And tried to kill me," Naruto muttered. He then got a confused look on his face, "but if she understands that, then why get upset about it? One of our children was in possible danger, I needed to work fast. Hinata-chan is one of the level headed people I know, so I don't see why she would be upset."

Sakura's eyebrow twitched a bit, "why is she so upset? Are you serious? She's pregnant you Baka, you have been with her and around other pregnant women before, right? Of course she understands, absolutely she gets it. But her hormones are so different then normal right now, that seeing you put your arms around another woman, regardless of the intent, triggered a reaction from her. And you know her she never gets ultra angry or violent, but she finds ways of blaming herself." Sakura said this all and was suddenly aware that she was jabbing Naruto in the chest with her finger.

Naruto nodded in understanding, "you said that she was at home?"

Sakura chewed her tongue and nodded.

Naruto took off out of the window, he needed to fix this. Naruto still didn't think that he had done anything wrong, but the fact that Hinata was upset about this was just something that he could not handle.

He made it home quickly, if it was any faster he would have been using Hiarishin to get there. Naruto made his way through the door and up to the bedroom. When he got there he immediately saw that she was not sleeping. Her back was to the door, but the way of her breathing was not like when she slept.

Naruto sat down on the edge of the bed, he said nothing for a moment. Just sat there quietly thinking about what he should say. In this situation there was nothing else that could be said, "I'm sorry Hinata…"

She did not respond, she said nothing as he sat there. Naruto wanted to explain, he wanted to let her know what had happened, but struggled to find the words. Finally after a long pause, "Sakura came to 'see' me, she told me what had happened. Hinata-chan I am sorry that what I did upset you so much. I wasn't thinking, but you have to know that it was nothing, it was needed."

Still there was no response from his wife, she just lay there shaking slightly. Naruto resisted the urge to wrap her in his arms, "I just wanted to make sure you knew, I am sorry." He got up from the bed, "I'll let you sleep…"

He was half way to the door when her voice stopped him, "please, don't go."

Naruto looked back to see her sitting up looking at him. A pain hit his chest when her saw her tear stained face. "Hina…"

"Please, d-don't go Naruto-kun," she said softly. "I'm sorry for overreacting, but, well I just never thought that I could feel this type of jealousy." Naruto opened his mouth, but she continued, "I know there is nothing to be jealous about, but I couldn't help it."

Naruto walked back to the bed and sat down, Hinata's face fell onto his chest, pushing them both down.

It was that way the she fell asleep.

Authors note: Ok kinda filler chapter, but whatever. I hope you liked please review. And this is the chapter in which I changed the story to category of family. It just seemed fitting.


	8. Chapter 8

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Eight

There were footsteps to be heard, moving quickly and echoing throughout a wide, brightly lit hall. Along the walls of the corridor were many ornate sculptures, portraits and various other artworks.

At the end of the passage stood two massive doors. The doors where wooden and carved with outlines of the five great shinobi villages, in the carving the villages were all joined together, there was nothing separating them, no land or seas between them. The outlines of the villages were apparent, but fitted together like massive puzzle pieces.

The doors themselves were stained blood red.

The echoing footsteps grew louder at the cause was nearing the door way. They were being caused by a tall, statuesque woman, who moved with grace despite her hurried pace.

As she neared the doors, they swung outwards, admitting her. She immediately entered the massive chambers and crossed them quickly. When the woman reached the other end of the chamber, she fell to her knees and bowed low, pressing her forehead to the cold stone floor. "My lord," she said quietly.

She was addressing an old man, and ancient man who sat on a raised throne atop a high dais. This man's face was heavily lined, and scarred. It would be difficult to discern the lines of age from the scars on his face. His build was that of raw strength, withered only slightly due to his age. He had no hair, either on his head of face.

The mans eyes were closed when the woman addressed him, he did not shift or open them when she spoke. With his stillness he could have been confused as sleeping or dead, until he spoke, still not opening his eyes. "Yes, what is it Number 5?"

She spoke quickly, yet still cautiously, "My lord, this concerns the team sent to Konoha, according to my sources within the village, they made contact with the team of Uzumaki Minato and Nara Shikara." She paused for a moment.

The old man must have sensed her hesitation, "go on," he commanded.

She nodded, "the mission appears to have failed, and Number 26 was captured by the Jonin leading the team, and brought to their interrogation." She flinched for a moment when the old man inhaled through his nose deeply, and a wave of killing intent washed over her. "My source states that while he was in the interrogation room, he took his own life and betrayed no secrets."

The old man exhaled and nodded, "so he gave his life to protect the cause, such a sacrifice. That man shall be honored." He paused for a moment, "what of Number 27?"

"Apparently he fled the moment Number 26 was captured, leaving the children." The woman known as Number 5 said this quickly, as if it would be less unpleasant and over quickly that way.

As soon as the words left her mouth, the old mans eyes snapped open. They were cold and grey, they bored into her eyes and she could not look away, "He fled?" the man repeated.

"Hai, my lord."

"Do we know where he fled to?" asked the old man with a forced calm.

"Not specifically, my lord. There are two possibilities, he could have fled the scene and run form us as well, for his failure. Or he could be attempting to return to base." She replied in a small voice.

"Either way, that is unacceptable. If he runs here he could lead Konoha's agent's right to our doors. And if he runs from us for this…" he paused a moment. "Number 27 is to be stopped and disposed of, send Number 10."

"Hai, my lord." The woman said, "And what is to be done with the body?"

"Tell Number 10 that the body is to be left there to rot, I will not tolerate weakness and stupidity from my subordinates. And I will not have one foolish coward dash all of the plans that I have work my whole life for."

"It will be done my lord," she woman said bowing again, and began to leave the room.

The old man called out to her before she left, "Number 5, would you be so kind as to also send Number 7 in to see me, I need to discuss with him his upcoming mission with his target in Suna."

"Hai, my lord," the woman bowed again and hurried off.

In the woods surrounding Konoha, there were three shinobi running the path that cut through the trees. The team consisted of three men and a beastly dog, the smallest of the men was leading.

Behind him was a tall, powerfully built man, his hair was long and white, falling down to the lower part of his back when he was still. Now it was waving behind him, almost parallel to the ground. Despite his white hair he had an unlined face that was little more than 30 years of age.

Bringing up the rear was an equally tall and powerful man to the second; his hair was short and dark. On either cheek was a red triangular marking. His face had a feral look about it that closely matched the look on the bear sized dog that bounded along with him.

The trio was following a small path that snaked through the woods. They soon came upon an area in the path that showed signed of recent battle. Stones where loose and strewn about the path, some of the rock were charred black. There were snapped twigs and branches, and an indentation lined with cracked bark in one of the trees that stood at the edge of the path.

The smaller man on point stopped and called the other to a halt. The others all stopped and looked around.

"This is the spot," Mayte said to his companions.

Kemonoi and his beastly partner, Kuromeru, circled the area sniffing around. The Inuzuka paused at the splintered bark of the indented tree. He took in the sent of the body that caused the indentation that was still on the tree.

Kemonoi gave a low, draw out whistle. He then turned to Mayte, "this is where you slammed one of the ninja that attacked your team, isn't it?"

Mayte nodded, "Hai, and then tied him up."

"I'm surprised that he survived that kind of blunt force trauma, not that it did him any good," the Inuzuka chuckled. "That being said, remind my not to piss you off. It is surprising that a small guy like you could pack that much of a punch," Kemonoi smiled.

Mayte's eyes narrowed, he was about to say something when Kawazu interrupted, "this isn't the time for this. We still have a job to do, Kemonoi can you track the scents or not?"

Kemonoi nodded and continued sniffing around; soon he stopped in the middle of the path and took in on last smell. "It's a bit hard to tell, there is a jumble of scents here." He pointed to the east, "There are two scents coming from that direction, one of the captured ninja and another. They come here where there are scents now of Naruto-sama, you Mayte, also your students," he sniffed again, "Kawazu and Ino-san."

He sniffed around again, and nodded to himself. He then pointed off north, "the unknown ninja took off in that direction, alone. That must have been hours ago, we will have to really move it to catch up before the scent fades."

Kuromeru barked in agreement.

"Great, let's get going then," said Kawazu.

The trio took off north, this time with Kemonoi and Kuromeru on point. This was looking to be a long trip.

Back in Konoha it was morning already. Naruto woke up to find that Hinata was still sleeping peacefully, he watched her for a moment, thinking about what a baka he was yesterday. But after their talk she herself dismissed it as her overreacting to a simple situation.

All the same he waited until she woke up and made sure that she was feeling better and no longer upset. He hoped that this would not put any kind of strain on them, and promised himself all the same that he would take extra care not to upset her.

Naruto had a few things he wanted to see to today, his first stop would be at the hospital. He made his way along the streets of the village, barely pausing to acknowledge the greetings that the villagers had sent his way. He was in too much of a hurry and had someone to visit, hoping that he would see his advisor there.

He was pleased to see that Shikamaru was in the room talking to his daughter. Also in the room was Temari, who was sleeping in a chair off to the side of the hospital room, cradling their second and younger daughter, Karei.

To Naruto's surprise there was one other sleeping person in the room. Minato was curled up on one of the chairs, with a blanket draped over him. Naruto's eyes lingered on his sleeping son before turning to Shikamaru, who had stopped talking when Naruto entered the room. Naruto smiled to see the young Konoichi awake and lucid.

Naruto made his way over to the Nara's, "how are you feeling Shikara-chan?"

"Hokage-sama, I'm a bit sore," the girl answered. "But I'll live."

"That's good," Naruto said. "I can say that it would be a very sad thing if you would not, losing such a good Konoichi like yourself would be horrible."

The girl blushed a bit, "arigato, Hokage-sama, but I am just a rookie."

"Rookie or not," Naruto said smiling. "You fiercely defended your team, and friends. Some of the more experienced Shinobi in the village would do well to act more like you."

"Arigato."

Naruto turned back to look at Minato, then he turned to Shikamaru. "Has the little Gaki been here all night? Did he even go home?"

Shikamaru nodded, "yes he has been here all night, he was quite adamant about it. The hospital staff was hesitant of letting even family stay here over night, but he convinced them in the end."

"Well it seems that I will have to have a talk with him about letting his parents know about that sort of thing," Naruto mused mostly to him self.

"Please Hokage-sama," said Shikara, "don't punish him because of that."

"I never said I would punish him, he just needs to know that he needs to let me know when he does something like this," Naruto said. Then he continued, "I would like to know if I can borrow your father for a bit, Shikara-chan."

"Go ahead," she smiled, relived that her friend was not in trouble. "Father was getting a bit boring anyway."

Shikamaru glanced at his daughter in mild annoyance, but allowed himself to be ushered out of the room with no protest.

The two of them made their way to the tower and up to Naruto's office. Once Naruto closed the door he spoke again, "so, Shikara seems to be doing good."

Shikamaru nodded, "yes the doctors say that she will be at 100 percent within the week."

"That's good," Naruto said. "One thing I wanted to say was that the attacker died last night."

"Died? How did he die?" asked the Nara.

Naruto did not answer immediately, he walked over to his desk were he saw a new file waiting for him. He picked it up and opened it to see the autopsy report. He read through it quickly, "It seems that the cause of death was self inflicted, the attacker ate some poison in the interrogation room. It was hidden in a false tooth and most likely done at the sight of his interrogator, Sasuke."

"So we didn't get any information?" Shikamaru said, trying to force a calm voice.

Naruto looked at his friend and then closed the folder, "not really, Sasuke managed to get a couple words out of him. While he was dying, he was asked by Sasuke what his goal was and who he was with. The response was the truth, and given under the influence of Sasuke's hypnosis with the Sharingan."

"So what was the response?" asked Shikamaru.

"The descendants," Naruto said. "But we cant tell what question that was an answer to, is he part of a group called the descendents, or is that their goal? You know?"

Shikamaru was silent for a moment, "this is why you wanted to talk, isn't it? You wanted to see what I think it could be." This last bit was not a question.

Naruto did not deny it, "Yes, you are my chief advisor after all."

Shikamaru sighed, "Well given this new information I would have to saw that 'the descendants' are the targets. I had been thinking about it all night, there where a couple of reasons why the team would be attacked. One being that they were after Minato, after all capturing the son of the Hokage could be a possibility."

Naruto started to interrupt, "but during the attack…"

Shikamaru continued, "Then I spoke with my daughter this morning, and she said that it was clear that the attackers were out to kill Minato and her, none of the attacks were aimed n any way at the other two."

Naruto stayed silent, looking curiously at his friend. He was impressed that despite the fact that he was in the hospital all night, he still seemed to be onto something.

Shikamaru continued, "After hearing what she had to say about what happened, I thought of two possibilities. This is either some type of hate crime against relations of former Jinchuriki, which is unlikely now that you said what the attacker said. The other possibility, the only other one I can think of now is that, they are after descendents of past and present Kages."

"Then why your daughter? She does not have a past Hokage in her family." Naruto said.

Shikamaru sighed, "No I said past Kages, if what I am thinking is true this is much more than just Konoha. My wife's father was the forth Kazekage, so my daughters are his grandchildren."

Naruto nodded, this was not news to him. "So what you are saying is that there is a possibility that there is a group of people who are targeting the families of past and present Kage's?"

Shikamaru took the folder from Naruto, he thumbed through it. He paused at a spot, "and this shows that we are dealing with a group not unlike the Akatsuki."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"The attacker has been positively identified as a missing nin from the Mist village." Shikamaru continued.

"Yes and I will have to set up transport with the Mizukage to return the body of the would be assassin," Naruto said. I will also have to inform the other four of this possibility. I have sent a team to try to track down the other attacker who ran. We will have to confirm this, but all the same I and the other Kage's will have to compile a list of the families." Naruto said. "But, for once, I hope that you are wrong Shikamaru, no offence."

"None taken, I hope I am wrong too." He said, "After all my entire family is at risk if I am not."

"Well this has been an informative discussion, Shikamaru. You can go back to the hospital if you want." Naruto said pulling out a scroll to write the other Kages.

"There is one other thing that you should tell them about." Shikamaru said before he left.

"Hmm? What is it?" Naruto asked looking up.

"They should keep any info they find about this to them selves."

"Why?"

"The fact that this team was attacked and the attackers knew where they would be, all that suggests that there is the possibility of a spy within the villages." Shikamaru said and left the office.

Naruto rubbed his temples, "great one more thing to worry about," he muttered to himself.

Authors note: I have been having a bit of writers block but I am happy with this chapter. Please let me know what you all think as always reviews are welcome.


	9. Chapter 9

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Nine

The tracking party, having traveled though out the night, was continuing on through the woods, nearing the border of the villages land. They traveled in silence, led by Kemonoi and his canine companion. Mayte was right behind the Inuzuka, with Kawazu bringing up the rear.

It was shortly after dawn, and Kemonoi had been following the scent of the enemy. The scent had been growing stronger for a while now; the group was nearing their target.

The animalistic Jonin suddenly halted. He raised his fist into the air; his teammates stopped right behind him. He turned to the party and whispered, "The target is 100 yards ahead of us, and didn't Naruto-sensei say that we were supposed to follow him?"

Mayte nodded, "yes, we should wait until he is finished resting. This way we will be able to track him and get the needed information as to his destination, it would not do to let him know of our presence."

Kawazu nodded, "at least we can rest a moment as well, we have been going at a ridiculous pace so far."

Kemonoi smiled a bit, "good, yeah now that we are caught up I could use a breather." He sniffed around a bit, "maybe we should move away a bit and down wind."

The other two nodded and they backed off another 50 yards and shifted their position to that Kemonoi could keep tabs on the target. The four of them sat on the ground in the shade of the trees; they drank from their canteens and ate some rations, replenishing their strength.

Their target had not moved for a while, Mayte turned to his old teammate. "So Kemonoi, you're tired huh? I guess keeping this kind of pace is too much for you."

The Inuzuka glared at Mayte, "please you're tired to, only Naruto-sensei can keep this kind of pace with out getting winded." He turned to Kawazu, who he saw was sitting there, eyes closed, not even breathing hard, "and it seems Kawazu as well, he is barely winded."

Kawazu cracked one-eye open and smirked, "you two need to work on your stamina. Sempei naturally has a lot of it, and I trained so that I could keep up with him when we traveled together for four years."

Kemonoi scowled, "Well that doesn't help us now does it?"

Kawazu shrugged and closed his eyes again, leaning against a tree.

Another hour passed in silence, and Mayte turned his head, listening closely, before he broke the silence. "Something is wrong; the target has not made a move in hours."

Kemonoi looked over at him, then sniffed lightly at the air, "you're right, but maybe he is just resting?" he suggested.

Mayte shook his head, "I mean he hasn't shifted at all, as far as I can tell has not moved a millimeter since we came here."

Kawazu watched the two in silence for a moment, looking from one to the other as they spoke in whispers. If the target had not moved, that was odd. Everyone moved a bit, every during sleep. Finally he spoke again, "Kemonoi, have you been using your enhanced sense of smell?"

The Inuzuka shook his head, "no there was no point, and I can tell he is still there without enhancing my nose with charka."

Kawazu nodded, "well do it now, I need to confirm something."

Kemonoi looked at him in shock for a moment; he had been avoiding using his charka on the off chance that it alerted the enemy of their presence. Shaking his head he did as he was told, not a second after he took an enhanced sniff, he retched and recoiled, deactivating his ability.

Both Kawazu and Mayte looked at the other with concern. "What it is?" asked Mayte.

Kemonoi coughed and retched again, before spitting on the ground, "that was disgusting; I think I know why he didn't move."

"What do you mean?" asked Kawazu.

"The target is dead," Kemonoi responded.

"What, how can you be sure?" Mayte snapped.

Kemonoi glared at him. "Look, either he is dead and his bowels released, or the guy shit his pants. One way or the other, you try taking a heavily enhanced smell of that."

"Enough you two," Kawazu said, "with all the racket that Kemonoi just made, the target still has not moved. Kemonoi may be right in that he is dead."

"Damn right I am."

"We still need to take a closer look, to be sure." Mayte stated.

"That's true," Kawazu said.

The three of them moved closer to the area the enemy was supposed to be, they brushed past the foliage and looked into a small clearing. On the forest floor, in the middle of the clearing, lay the target.

Kemonoi was right, this man was clearly dead; there no sign of a struggle what so ever. The body was in a pool of its own waste and blood.

Mayte looked over the scene. "Well I think that we can rule out another suicide," he remarked motioning over to something a few feet away from the body.

Kawazu looked over to see a human head, and looked back to the body and confirmed that its head was indeed severed. "That's true, unless he cut it off himself."

Mayte spoke again, "unlikely, I see other foot prints, ones that don't match this guy. He was killed."

Kemonoi sniffed again, careful to avoid the stench and not use his enhancement at full strength. After a moment he spoke again, "there is absolutely no scent of anyone else, if there were no other foot prints, and if there was a blade near the body, I would say he did kill himself.

"It's seems that since this was a killing, there is a larger group that was behind targeting the two kids," Mayte said.

"Why do you say that?" asked Kawazu.

"Well," Mayte started, "if this is a missing nin, it was not a hunter-nin that caught up with him; The body was left to rot, not destroyed as per regulation. My guess is that since they botched the assassination attempt, they were punished."

"So we are possibly dealing with a group that will kill their own for screwing up?" Kemonoi asked.

Kawazu nodded, "that makes sense, and the body was left as a warning or an example. This also means that they would have known that the attempt failed, so they likely have a source in the village, one that would inform the rest of the group."

Mayte nodded, "it would make sense, since they seemed to know that my team would be where they were, and knew when so they could attack."

"So a possible traitor, huh?" Kemonoi said, "Sensei won't like that."

"True, this is a bad situation any way you look at it," Kawazu said. He then walked over and took the head from the ground placing it with the rest of the body. The man then pulled a scroll from his pouch and lay it beside the corpse, ran through some hand signs the seal on the scroll activated, and the body vanished in a burst of smoke. The seal on the scroll glowed a bright blue for a moment before fading back to the normal black ink.

He turned back to his three companions, "it seems that we will find nothing else here, we should head back to the village."

The other two nodded in agreement, and the large black dog let out a booming bark. They all took off running back to Konoha.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Dawn was approaching, the sun was just beginning to peak over the sand dunes. The red haired Kage was standing in the balcony overlooking his village, feeling the cool desert winds against his face.

He felt worried for his niece, despite the fact that the girl was strong given who her mother is. He felt happy that she didn't take after the lazy bastard that his older sister decided to marry.

It had been a long time since Gaara could not sleep. His youth was one long, insomnia filled nightmare. He has more than made up for that now. These days, it took quite a lot to keep him up like this.

Last time that he had lost sleep was after his son was born, there were complications and the doctors did not feel there was much of a chance for the newborn boy. He spent several nights sitting by the side of a sleeping Matsuri, while his child struggled to stay alive.

When the baby improved, he had named his son 'Ketsui' (determination), the name was fitting as to this day, ten years later, and the boy did not know the meaning of giving up.

Ten years since he lost sleep, it seemed odd that he once thought of his insomnia as commonplace for himself. It was odd that before his insomnia was almost a torture, and now it was brought on by love and concern for others.

His fellow Kage had promised that he would send word of what was found out about the attackers as soon as possible. And since he couldn't sleep, might as well wait for the message.

There was a sound of the door to his office being opened and closed. Gaara turned and saw no one there, he shook his head hiding a smirk, and turned back to watch the sun rise only to find a pair of brown eyes locked with his.

His son was crotched, sitting on the railing of the balcony, looking right into his fathers face. Gaara quickly grabbed the small, brunette boy, from the balcony and gave a slight chuckle, "Ketsui, you are getting better at that." The boys eyes lit up, "but I still knew it was you," Gaara finished.

The glow from the boy's eyes faded, and he pouted, "you're no fun."

Gaara shrugged, "you will need a much more training before you can sneak up on me." He paused for a moment, "where is your mother?"

"Sleeping," the young boy replied simply.

"And you left the house?" Gaara asked. "You do realize that when she wakes up she will worry, don't you?"

"I wanted to see you, you didn't come home last night father. Where you here all this time?" Ketsui asked.

Gaara nodded, "hai I am awaiting information from the Hokage and from your aunt, couldn't sleep my self."

The boy smiled, "don't worry Shikara-chan will be fine, she is so strong."

Gaara nodded, "so do you wish to wait with me?"

"Hai."

Gaara then took out piece of paper and began to write on it, when he was done he rolled it up and called out for the guard outside his door.

The guard entered with a bow, "Hai Kazekage-sama, how may I be of service?"

Gaara handed the guard the note, "have this delivered to my home, my son did not think ahead enough and I am concerned that his mother will worry," the small boy looked down at the ground guiltily. "Do not wake her, just leave the message at the door."

"Hai Kazekage-sama."

They sat in the office a while longer and the sun was already rising into the cloudless sky. There was soon a knock at the door, "enter," Gaara said quickly.

"Kazekage-sama, there is word from Konoha," a messenger entered holding a scroll out to Gaara.

"Thank you, is that all?"

"Hai," the messenger said before excusing himself from the office.

Gaara unfurled the small scroll and quickly read through it, his eyes brightened a bit while reading then they grew dark and a scowl crossed his face.

"What is it father? Is Shikara-chan alright? Ketsui asked.

He looked down at his son, "she is fine it says she will recover soon." He called out for the guard again, who again entered the room in a bow. Before the guard could speak Gaara said, "I want Ketsui taken home, and make sure that there is a guard stationed around the estate."

"Hai," the guard said quickly, then motioned for the boy to follow.

Ketsui instead looked at his father, "what's wrong, why can't I stay with you?"

Gaara shook his head, "never mind that, just don't leave the house, I will be home shortly."

Gaara read the letter through once again. This news was quite disturbing, but he knew better than to take chances.

After all, if Shikamaru believed there to be a possibility that family of either Kages or possibly Jinchuriki where being targeted, sad to say it was more that likely a correct assessment.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

There is a small, yet thriving town less than a days travel from Konoha, still within the borders of fire country. It is a popular location for visit, for it boasts the some of the best hot springs in the elemental nations.

The town has been expanding, there are very few actual residents of this town, most are tourists and the like, there to enjoy the relaxing springs and forget about their troubles.

There is a woman sitting in the hospital, her doctor had some distressing news. She had been expected it, after all she was not young anymore. She was in fact surprised that she had lived this long, she would ­

have bet on her own death to have been a while ago, but Tsunade was never one for picking a sure thing.

'It seems that my life and that technique has finally caught up with me,' she thought as she vaguely listened to the young doctor struggle to find the way to tell the great Tsunade that her body was failing.

Not that she needed to even go to the doctor to have some, wet behind the ears, kid tell her what she had felt for a while now. But her ward Shizune, had insisted that, since Tsunade had been acting a bit sluggish lately it might be best to get herself checked out.

Damn self-diagnosis, the curse of a medic, you can never really get a doctor to go see a doctor. But then Shizune had an odd power over her teacher and life long friend, getting Tsunade to do something she would rather avoid was not really a challenge.

Despite her age of 74 years, Tsunade's mind was as agile as ever. And she mused over the fact that Shizune had gotten her to go to a doctor, a man whose parents the older blonde woman could have delivered.

She interrupted the young doctor, "excuse me, but I think I will be fine, kid."

The young man fidgeted with his clipboard, "gomen Lady Tsunade, but have you really heard what I said?"

She cocked a single eye brow, "I'm sorry, but who do you think you are talking to? Listen kid, I knew before I even came in here, I can feel it. Despite how I may appear to you, I am not a young woman any more."

"M-my apologies, lady Tsunade." The doctor hurriedly said, stumbling over his words.

She waved her hand to forestall any further excuses, "don't worry about it." She sighed, "so in your professional opinion, how long do you think?"

"Another…" the man hesitated.

"Spit it out, what is it? Two months, possible three?" she snapped.

"H-hai."

Tsunade nodded, "yes I thought as much," she stood up and collected her jacket.

"Wait, where are you going?" the doctor asked.

"What do you mean?" Tsunade replied.

"Well, we can make you as comfortable as possible."

Tsunade gave a wry laugh, "as comfortable as possible…wow those words sound bizarre hearing it on this end." She shook her head, "thanks but I spent my life in a hospital, I am not going to spend my death there too."

Tsunade left the hospital and returned to the hotel, where she knew Shizune would be waiting for her. 'There is no point worrying her with this,' Tsunade thought as she made her way through the quiet streets.

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune greeted her as the older woman entered the hotel, "so find anything out?"

Tsunade shrugged, "there was nothing unexpected."

Shizune smiled a bit, "well that's good."

"Yes, that is good," Tsunade agreed. An odd expression crossed her face, "Shizune…" she started.

"Hai Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade was silent for a moment, almost breaking and telling exactly what was said in the hospital. She decided against it again, "I feel like a change of scenery."

"Oh?" Shizune said. "Where are you thinking of going?"

"You know I haven't seen my 'grand-children' in quite a while," Tsunade smiled. "Lets head home for a short while."

Authors note: I hope you all liked this one, sorry it has been a while since I posted for this story. Damned writers block pisses me off some times. Please as always review, it is much appreciated.


	10. Chapter 10

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Ten

There was a slightly muffled sound of metal striking a cloth wrapped, denser metal that did not carry far on the empty beach. A powerfully built man grasped the sword strapped to his back, shifting it and deflecting the brace of kunai flung at his back.

The man was tall and broad, the sword attached to his back would far too much for any normal person the lift let alone wield. The sword was six feet in length, and a foot wide. It was wrapped in white cloth bandages and rounded at the end.

With in the blink of an eye the man unclasped the sword and swung around, holding the monstrous weapon aloft with one hand while the other pointed to the only other figure on the quiet beach. With in sight, there was another man, the attacker was smaller that the angry 'victim'.

"Who are you and why are you attacking me?" he questioned, eyes narrowing in agitation and anger.

The other figure shook his head and spoke, "who I am in unimportant, but I am attacking you simply to kill you."

The taller man laughed in the attacker's face, "Do you have any idea who I am? Do you have the slightest clue who you are throwing your life away to?"

The shorter man nodded, "to are the famed Tsuiraku Shuuha, one of the seven swords men of the mist. Your sword was inherited when the former owner and former mist nin; Kisame was killed many years ago."

The man flinched at the name. Kisame was one of the members of the seven mist swordsman, the former mist nin was Shuuha's mentor and Shuuha was chosen to be his successor. But then Kisame betrayed the mist village and took the sword with him.

Though it was years ago that Shuuha reclaimed the sword that was meant to be his anyway, mention of his one time mentor angered him. "Don't mention that traitors name to me, he took something that did not belong to him. He betrayed my village and I consider him little more than a thief."

The other man smirked, but as a simple black mask obscured his face, Shuuha did not see. "My apologies," the man said with a slight bow. "My intention was not meant to offend; I was merely stating that I did know who you are."

"So you know who I am and wish to kill me?" the swordsman spat. "If you truly know who I am you will know it will not be easy for you."

The attacker nodded, "I wasn't counting on an easy fight."

"Tell me were you counting on dying your self?" said Shuuha softly. As soon as the words left his mouth, the sword was swung around quickly and the mist ninja vanished in the blink of an eye.

The attackers eyes widened behind his mask, he then quickly jumped to his left as the swordsman appeared behind him and brought the massive wrapped sword down in a graceful arc. 'So fast, was not expecting that type of speed with such a bulky weapon.' The attacker thought.

Shuuha cocked his head watching his opponent's progress, "your pretty light on your feet, not bad considering the shifting sand we stand on." He then laughed again, "good I could use a decent workout."

He watched as the mystery attacker vanished from view himself. His eyes scanning the area, roving over the sand and rocks running along of the beach. Shuuha smirked and twirled his massive sword around as though it were a light training stick, knocking several kunai and shurikin from the air.

The enemy appeared behind him, "you are a true master. You use that sword so well, almost making it look effortless."

"Thanks," Shuuha said simply. He then swung the sword over his shoulder, bringing it down behind him.

The enemy jumped back, but could not completely avoid such a massive object coming down at him with that speed. As it was the swords tip grazed the man's chest, the bandages that wrapped the blade shredded reveling a serrated, many toothed sword.

The attacker was unhurt, the clothing on him was a bit shredded, but the sword drew no blood. However though physically uninjured, his body got weaker. 'I got careless, now that damned sword of his drained away some of my charka.'

Shuuha sung around to face his attacker, holding the blade out pointing at the other man "approach at your own risk, friend."

The other man stayed silent, but as if in response settled into a wide splayed stance, his arms held aloft and his hands started to glow with blue chakra.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Hinata was walking the streets of Konoha alone. Well almost alone, she pretended not to notice the ANBU detail trailing her. While she smiled at the thought of Naruto-kun, and his protectiveness, Hinata still found it a bit distracting.

She had already stopped at the Hyuuga compound to drop little Jiraiya off so that he could train with his uncle in the Juken style. That boy was making a lot of progress in it, Hinata thought about the past, and how she couldn't hope to be that proficient when she was twice his age.

He truly is his father's son.

Hinata had one more thing to deal with and frowned when she thought about the fact that Minato did not come home the night before. His team was back in the village and she had not seen him in a week. It was true that she was a bit preoccupied with upsetting thoughts last night, but now she needed to make sure that her eldest son was ok.

So Hinata continued toward the hospital, Naruto had told her that Shikara was hospitalized and was sure that her son would probably be there as well. While it was nice to think that Minato cared so much for his friends, the boy could have at least informed them where he would be.

Lost in thought, Hinata was surprised to find herself entering the main doors of the hospital. It was another voice that called out to her; Ino broke her out of her thoughts.

"Good morning Hinata," the blonde woman said softly.

"Oh, good morning Ino," Hinata replied. "I almost didn't see you there."

There was an awkward silence for a moment before Ino spoke again, "look about what you probably saw yesterday…"

Hinata shook her head and smiled, "don't worry about it. I know that Naruto can be somewhat impetuous, but I am fine with it." Hinata blushed a bit; "it was his passion that attracted me to him in the first place."

"Really?" Ino said surprised. "If it was me I'd be a more than a bit upset."

Hinata nodded, "I was…well last night anyway. But not at you, it was the hormones and all. It is not like you asked Naruto to snatch you up like that."

"Tell me something Hinata; have you ever 'teleported' like that with him?" Ino asked curious.

Hinata shook her head, "no there has not been any need for it."

"Lucky you," Ino muttered. "Not a pleasant experience at all. Though in retrospect, I am happy he did, Shikara might not have survived if the Baka didn't act with out thinking."

Hinata frowned a bit at the remark, after all Naruto did think it through pretty well. He sent an order to have Kawazu ready, and found the first medic he could before going there. "Ino you are not being fair, Naruto-kun did think it through."

"Yeah, you're right of course," Ino agreed quickly. "It just unnerved me last night, that and I'm a bit tired. I was just heading home now."

"Well, enjoy your rest…oh and by the way, have you seen Minato?" Hinata asked, remembering why she was there in the first place.

Ino smiled, "yes that kid has not left, he was here all night. Observation wing, room ten, Shikamaru and Temari were there as well. But your son felt the need to stay with Shikara too." Ino winked devilishly, "they make such a cute couple."

Hinata shook her head and continued on the halls of the hospital, she soon found herself at room ten. She knocked at the door and a female voice called out for her to enter. Hinata went into the room to find Temari sitting next to the bed that held her older daughter; Temari's 4-year-old girl was sitting in her lap.

She looked around and saw Minato sitting on the opposite side of the bed. He was in conversation with Shikara before Hinata entered, and broke off at the sign of his mother.

Hinata made her way over to Shikara's bed and looked down at the blonde girl with a smile on her face, "from what I hear, Shikara-chan, I owe you a great debt."

The girl smiled back sheepishly, "it was nothing," she said quietly.

"Well my son owes you at the very least," Hinata replied. She then turned her gaze over to her son, who quailed under her stern look. "Minato while I am happy that you wanted to make sure that your friend was well, you should have at least told us that you would be here."

Minato nodded, "I know mother, father already told me."

Temari spoke up, "Hinata we didn't mind him here at all, I am sure that Shikara enjoyed his presence."

Hinata nodded, "yes they have been friends for a long time, but still," she addressed her son, "you will let us know if ever something should happen, not that I would want anything to happen again like that."

Minato nodded once in understanding, and Temari spoke up again. "It is nice and disconcerting to see them grow up so fast." She chuckled a bit, "after all it seems that just yesterday that these two along with Hana, were running around together, in nothing but their diapers."

The result was instantaneous, Minato shifted uncomfortably in his seat and Shikara turned red, "mom!"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto sat in his chair, trying his hardest not to bang his head against the desk in frustration. It was not the team's fault that the person they were tracking ended up being killed. It did make things more complicated, especially when they found that the missing nin they tracked down was a former Konoha nin.

Even Naruto did not need anyone else to tell him that the enemy they were facing was ruthless. There had to be more, or else who would have killed this one? It seemed that things would be getting worse, and dealing with a group like this it was almost guaranteed.

Naruto had already dismissed the team, and insisted that Shikamaru go back to the hospital, or anywhere it didn't really matter.

He stood at his window, overlooking the village. Naruto's eyes were fixed on the stone faces, mainly his predecessor's. "No wonder you didn't mind stepping down from this job," Naruto mused to himself.

It seemed a shame that all of his young life, he had worked for this goal, and now that he has been doing it for years the strain was really starting to set in.

His eyes flicked to the third face on the mountain side, "and I have no idea how you dealt with this job for as long as you did."

Naruto would have preferred to have been alone with his thoughts. He was already starting to calm down, despite the current situation. But the knock on the door did not help any matters.

One of his guard opened the door slightly, "Hokage-sama, you have a guest."

Naruto did not turn back at all, "tell them I'm busy and not to be disturbed."

"But, sir they are really quite insistent…" the guards words were cut off as the doors were flung open, hitting the walls, and creating such a crash that Naruto flinched.

"What did I just say?" Naruto spat as he turned around, his words died as he saw his guest.

"What's wrong, Gaki? Is the job getting to you?"

Naruto smiled for the first time since he got to the office that day, "Oba-chan."

A vain ticked in Tsunade's head, "it's been over two decades and you still insist on calling me that?"

Naruto shrugged, "what can I say? The name fits you, besides you have no problem when it's one of my kids calling you that."

"Yeah, well I actually am old enough to be their grandmother." She smiled, "speaking of, I would like to see them I haven't been around in a while."

"Is that why you are here?" Naruto asked, "just to see them?"

"Among other things," she said simply.

"Well it is good to see you," Naruto said. "As a matter of fact I was going to have some people track you down and deliver a message."

Tsunade was curious, "you were going to track me down? What could be so important that you would have disrupted my retirement?"

Naruto gave a grim smile, "very few things would force me to, but recently there have been things happening that make me think, there is a chance that your life could be in danger."

Tsunade's eyebrows rose up a bit, and she said nothing for a moment. Finally she took a breath, "go on."

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"What the hell did you do to me?"

The attacker said nothing, his victim was on all fours coughing and struggling to draw breath. The man pulled a kunai from his pouch and gripped Shuuha's hair pulling his head back. "It's over," with that he ran his small blade along the other mans throat.

Shuuha's body collapsed to the sand, blood spreading and staining the ground.

The attacker straitened up, he reached up and pulled the mask and hood from his head. He had short-cropped black hair, and his eyes were closed as he wiped the sweat due to his exertion from his face. The mans eyes opened slightly before he replace the mask and hood, they were white and milky as though he was blind.

He then leapt away; the leader was going to want to know of this victory. He could use some good news.

The blood in the sand was soon washed away with the rising tide. The rising water disposing any signs of a battle other than the corpse on the ground.

Authors note: as always please review.


	11. Chapter 11

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Eleven

The room was cold and sterile; it was well lit and smelt of disinfectant. Gleaming clean instruments and other surgical tools were laid out on one of the small tables in the middle of the clean room. It was like a cooler in there, and the two people working in the room could almost see the steam from their breath, as it passed the surgical masks they wore.

In the middle of the room there was another table. This one was large and a man lay atop it, the man was nude aside from a white cloth that was draped over his pelvis. He was obviously dead; there was a wound that ran half way around his neck, severing the veins and arteries there.

The blood had been drained and the wound cleaned, along with the rest of his body. His chest was opened and sewn shut, post-mortem.

One of the men examining him was now sitting at a small table, pen out writing notes and speaking into small recorder, while the other in the room was cleaning up, draping a sheet over the body, and sanitizing the tools.

"Subject has suffered multiple contusions, spread over his entire body. It is difficult to tell but the points on which these small bruises are, correlate with the tengetsu points. As the victims chakra is no longer flowing, it is impossible to determine whether or not they were sealed, but the deep muscle bruising suggests that they were."

The man sighed and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and pointer fingers. It was late when the body was found and he was called from bed because, someone had managed to kill one of the seven swordsmen, and the Mizukage was demanding answers.

He continued, "The blood was all drained from the victim's body, there was salt water found inside of the body. None of the water was found in the stomach or lungs; cause of death was wound to jugular veins and blood loss. No secondary wounds, aside from the multiple contusions, exist."

He finished up his notes and sealed the scroll to be taken to the Mizukage, if Kouzui-sama wanted this done in the middle of the night, then he would be waiting up for it. And it did not do well to keep the man waiting.

Thankfully he would not have to be the one to hand this message over, the Mizukage had said that he was able to go home once the autopsy was complete. The medic handed the scroll to the messenger who was waiting outside the chilled room. He had one more thing to take care of before heading home, going to the private washroom he showered, changed and walked out the door.

The Mizukage sat in his office, having just read the report from the coroner. A frown creased his already weathered and lined face. He was not a young man by any stretch of the imagination, the oldest of the five Kages actually.

His counterparts where all at least two decades his junior, in fact a new Raikage has just last year been inducted. Kouzai almost felt sorry for the girl, especially with the news that they had recently received from Naruto-sama.

He shook his head ruefully; the Hokage seemed to always have news that could affect all the elemental countries.

Ok, that was an exaggeration…but the fire land Kage was the one who brought to their attention to the problem left them by the Akatsuki years ago, the new Raikage was lucky she wasn't in power to have to deal with that one. Now there was the recent message of the attacks matching the way that the swordsman was just attacked.

But the man didn't meet the criteria that the Hokages people seemed to think; he was not family of any of the past Kages. And he certainly didn't have a relation that was a Jinchuriki. But the way of the attack matched…and if the Hokage had not sent warnings recently, Kouzai would have thought it possible that Konoha might have been behind it.

But Naruto-sama had stayed true to his word; he was constantly working to maintain the peace that was his 'legacy.' The kid was an idealist, that was true, but the older man liked his ideas. The 5 nations and beyond were starting to see the fruits of their labor, a kind of peace that nobody could believe would be possible was no a possibility.

The Mizukage knew that it was still a delicate thing, and years of experience told him that some force was actively trying to destabilize the foundation of this peace.

After all if this attack had taken place against one of lightning's people, the Raikages advisors would be pressuring her to get up in arms against Konoha. There is only one style that could hit all of the tengetsu points like that.

Kouzai wanted his grandchildren to grow up in a peaceful time; this problem was to be dealt with now. He sighed as he opened his desk drawer, removing four small scrolls and writing the same message in all of them. Ad he did so he muttered to himself, "the five of us had not met in quite a while now, and perhaps we are overdue"

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It was mid morning in Konoha, Tsunade had watched the sun rise from a balcony in her family home. She had arrived last night and gone to see her successor, she shook her head thinking that she did not envy Naruto in the problems that he seemed to be facing now.

Naruto it seemed had sent a team out to track her down, she normally would have been angry that he felt she needed protection. But he did care for her, she knew that and was able to keep her anger in check.

Not that she needed protection, Naruto knew that too. But what he didn't know was that the protection would have been pointless anyway, Tsunade had not even told her close friend Shizune.

Tsunade wanted to make her way over to the Hyuuga compound, but could not due to the secrecy of their clans training. Naruto had mentioned that his children trained there in the mornings. The twins trained when not on missions, and due to recent problems they were being kept in the village until matters were resolved.

The kids did put up quite a stink when they where told this, it seemed. But they could not refuse for obvious reasons.

She was looking forward to seeing them, unfortunately would have to wait, as she had to respect the clans rules. Their training regimen was a carefully guarded secret after all.

So Tsunade found herself walking the busy streets that was the morning rush of the village. It was nice to see that for the most part it had not changed. Sure it was far more crowded from the time when she was still a young woman, but her grandfather's dream was still alive.

She was drawn from her thoughts by a squealing voice and small weight wrapping around her leg. "Oba-san."

Tsunade looked down to see a small dark-haired girl looking up at her with a huge grin plastered on her face. Bending down she lifted the small child up and embraced her, "Yuri-chan. My, you're getting big." She commented, and looked the girl in the eyes, "now where is your mother?"

"Kaa-san is over there," the girl said pointing into the crowd, where Tsunade spotted a patch of pink hair among the other shoppers.

Tsunade smiled; well at least she was able to see one of her 'grand-children' this morning, "come-on let's get back to her. I don't think that she would like that you ran off like that."

The girl shifted guiltily in the older woman's arms, an apprehensive look now on her face, which Tsunade couldn't help but smile at.

It was at this point that Sakura looked down and around her immediate area to see that the girl was not there. Panic started to mount as she was looking around until she saw a familiar blond woman walking towards her, holding her daughter.

Sakura immediately felt relief and greeted her old sensei, "Tsunade-sama, it is great to see you again." Then taking the girl from the other woman, "Yuri never run off like that again."

Tsunade laughed, "relax Sakura she didn't get far." She pulled her former apprentice into what could has been a bone breaking hug, had Sakura not pulled away from her at the last moment.

"Please be careful, Tsunade-sama," Sakura said. "Not that I don't like seeing you, I don't think that you are aware what you're strength is capable of."

Tsunade looked indignant, "I know perfectly well what I can do, and I know that you can take it."

Sakura smiled sheepishly, "I didn't mean to imply anything like that it's just…"

She trailed off for a moment but Yuri spoke up, "I'm gonna get a baby brother…at least that's what Kaa-san says." The girl broke off with a thoughtful look during which she didn't notice that Tsunade and Sakura started talking. "I want a little sister, but Kaa-san won't listen to me. Maybe she'll listen to you Oba-san."

Tsunade was congratulating Sakura while Yuri seemed to be talking to herself, finally the girls voice brought the two adults focus back on her, "Oba-san, please make her understand."

"What?"

The girl repeated her statement with an annoyed expression. Tsunade chuckled at what she had said, which made the girl even angrier, "what is so funny?"

"Yuri-chan, neither your mother or I can control that," Tsunade said. "It could be a boy, and that is what your parents want so what is wrong."

"They're just so gross, like Jiriaya. He thinks he is so cool, but whenever we visit uncle Naruto he always teases me."

They continued walking while Tsunade listened to Sakura and Yuri 'talk' with a sad kind of smile.

"Maybe he likes you…" Sakura remarked.

"Ewww, he is gross though," Yuri said. "And he likes those slimy frogs."

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Naruto was sitting at his desk going through some of the more routine paperwork, budget approvals and other expenditures. He leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his temples in an attempt to subdue the ensueing headache.

It was a futile attempt as the door to his office was thrown open and Kiba raged into the room, "you wanna tell me what the hell your problem is!?"

Naruto glared at his friend, "what is your problem?"

"You are, what are you trying to do? Are you trying to steal Ino from me?" Kiba spat.

Naruto shot up, "is that your problem? It was an emergency, I needed a medic and she was the first that…" Naruto broke off when he saw that Kiba was struggling to keep a straight face. "What the hell..?"

Kiba let out a barking laugh, "Man I had you going for a sec, didn't I?"

Naruto sat back down, on one hand he had to appreciate a good joke. On the other… "Kiba I don't need this right now."

"Oh? Well my apologies 'Hokage-sama,' pardon me for trying to lighten the mood," Kiba said. "So how are the little brats?"

"You have a weird way of 'lightening the mood'," Naruto muttered. "The kids are doing good, for the most part they were uninjured."

"That's good, Ino told me about what happened," Kiba said. "Figured you could use some help if Shikamaru was not in right now."

"Do you think that I can't do anything?" Naruto asked indignantly. He was interrupted by a knock on the door, with a sigh he called out, "come in."

The door opened and a messenger entered the room. Walking across the floor he stopped at the desk, and with a bow said, "Hokage-sama, I have a message just received from the Mizukage."

"Thanks," Naruto accepted the scroll and the message turned and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Naruto unfurled the scroll and read, his brow furrowed in confusion as he finished it, "that's weird," he muttered to himself. He then called out to the door and in answer one of his guards entered, "get a message out I need Uchiha Sasuke, Kawazu, Sarutobi Konohamaru, Hyuuga Neji and Aburame Shino in my office as soon as possible."

"Hai," said the guard simply and took off.

Naruto turned to Kiba, "feel up for a mission?"

Kiba smirked, "always."

"Good, cause the Mizukage is calling for a Kage meeting. He gave no specifics but said it was a matter of supreme urgency, so I'll need a traveling party for the trip to the mist village," Naruto said.

Authors note: sorry for the wait and for the short chapter, been having a major case of writers block. I still hope you like this one and please review.


	12. Chapter 12

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Twelve

The eight of them, or nine depending on who did the count, stood in the Hokage office. Naruto was starting to go over what he needed. "Thanks for coming. To get right down to it, I received a correspondence from the Mizukage requesting a meeting of the five Kages."

The others nodded and Naruto spoke again, "the letter was simple but I think that he was not completely upfront in his letter."

"What do you mean?" asked Kiba.

"I'm not sure," Naruto admitted. "But I think he is hiding something."

"You suspect a trap?" asked Shino.

Naruto shook his head, "No he would not do that, and I know that he would not break the treaty and endanger his people." Naruto sighed, "The simple fact that he requested this meeting is enough to be careful."

"Why boss?" said Konohamaru. "If all he is a meeting then why are you so agitated?"

Naruto chuckled, "There are things that you have to learn if you want my job, just like I had to learn. The Mizukage is a good and honorable man. I trust him, but he is very old-fashioned and of the five of us he is the very last one who would do this."

"So what do you want us to do?" asked Neji.

"Right, getting to the point," Naruto said. "Three of you will act as my Anbu escort, Kiba, Shino, and Neji will be in disguise as that. Kawazu, you are known to the other villages as an ambassador of sorts, so your presence will be unquestioned as well."

Kiba cocked his head, "we are posing as your Anbu? Why us? None of us are Anbu."

Naruto continued, "Because if something is being hidden we need a specialized team to root out anything that is not disclosed. The old team Kuranei is the best tracking and investigation team that this village has ever produced. Unfortunately Hinata-chan is unable to participate," he paused a moment. "So Neji will take her place, as there is a familiarity between us all."

The others nodded, Neji asked another question. "So what is our mission?"

"It is likely that the reason for the meeting will be disclosed to us," Naruto said. "All the same, if the explanation is not good enough you are to root out any other possible clues."

"What about me?" Kiba said. "The whole point of Anbu is that their identity is hidden, the main reason that no Inuzuka opts for the Anbu path is because our partners are a dead giveaway."

"Well Akamaru will have to stay here won't he?" Sasuke said, finally speaking.

This caused the big bear sized dog to let loose a low, rumbling growl, and Kiba opened his mouth to argue.

Sasuke cut him off, "the Hokage gave you your orders, so don't cause trouble Kiba."

"Sasuke is right," Naruto said. "As good and useful Akamaru is, he will not be able to join you on this mission."

"What about me boss?" asked Konohamaru, confused as to why he was even there now, having been left out of the discussion.

Naruto smirked at him, "Well you and Sasuke will be staying her and keeping the village going. It will fall mostly to you; think of Sasuke in a strictly advisory way."

A look of disbelief fleshed across the younger man's face, replaced quickly by a wide grin. "Sure thing boss, you've got nothing to worry about."

"I hope so, I'm sure that you will do a good job. But remember that Sasuke will let me know of what you have done." Naruto smirked, "so try not to cause to much trouble. Not much can escape the Uchiha eye."

Konohamaru nodded in understanding, "thanks for trusting me with this, I promise I won't let you down."

"Right," Naruto said. He then turned back to the others, "we will be leaving in a few days, and the meeting is set to be held in five days. Kawazu will transport us, that will give you time to investigate while we wait for the others."

He motioned over to the corner, "Kiba, Shino and Neji, your masks and gear is ready for you. Make sure that it all fits."

At that point the door opened to the office and Shikamaru poked his head in. "Hey Naruto, you got a minute? I need to tell…" His words died as he took in the scene.

Eyes flicked lazily over Neji, Shino and Kiba gearing up. Then to Naruto putting his hat back on. Roving over the others to land on Konohamaru, who was eyeing the chair behind the desk with a hopeful look on his face.

"What do you need?" Naruto asked.

He didn't speak for a moment; calculating eyes falling on the desk now, having spotted the letter baring the Mizukage crest. "I just came to let you know that Shikara was released, but Sakura-san said that she should be off active duty until the medics clear her."

Naruto nodded with a smile, "that's good news. Of course whatever Sakura thinks is best"

"What's going on here?" Shikamaru finally asked.

Naruto felt no need to hide it from him, and motioning to the scroll on the desk, "the Mizukage has called for a Kage summit. We are leaving soon."

Understanding dawned on Shikamaru's face as he saw Kiba, Shino and Neji, none of whom were Anbu, holding the gear of Naruto's usual Anbu escort. "Let me guess, Mizukage-sama was not completely upfront in the reason of this meeting. You suspect so they will be posing as your escort to find out any thing they can."

Naruto nodded, "quick as ever," he said. "And I am having Kawazu come as he is my ambassador in a way. Konohamaru and Sasuke will watch things here."

Shikamaru's eyes widened a bit, and then his brow furrowed "when do we leave?"

Naruto looked confused for a bit, "We? No Shikamaru, I gave you time off…"

"Until my Daughter pulled though," Shikamaru finished for him. "She is going to be ok. And as troublesome as it is, as your Chief strategic advisor, I would be expected at such a meeting."

Naruto smirked at his friend, "no way to dissuade you without ordering you to stay?"

"Nope," was the simple reply.

Naruto sighed, "Alright." He turned back to Konohamaru, "listen one more thing. For the new Genin no missions over D-rank for now, but let them bully you." A thin smile appeared on his face, "especially Hana."

"Sure thing boss."

Naruto eyed him warily for a moment, wondering is his 'little brother' really could say no to Hana. He then shrugged "Alright, all of you be here three days from now at eight in the morning."

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There was a knock at the door of the Uzumaki home; it took a moment to answer as Hinata was tending to the plants in the adjoining sunroom.

"I'll be there in a moment," she called out. Taking note of where she was before the interruption, so that she could return once she saw whom it was.

Not many things annoyed Hinata. After all, being married to whom she was simply proved the seemingly infinite amount of patients that she was graced with. But she loved tending to the flora that they had, it was a form of meditation to her.

She remembered watching her mother care for the flowers in the Hyuuga compound. It was one of her fondest memories. And the sunroom that they had in their home was one of the only connections to the memory of her.

So there was a rarely heard stiffness to her voice when she answered the door, "Yes may I help you?"

The annoyance went away immediately as she heard a familiar voice say in mock offence, "well I suppose that I can come back."

"Godaime-sama."

Tsunade had yet to see her 'grandchildren' since she had come back to the village. She had figured out how to catch up with them and was now was sitting comfortably in the main room of the Uzumaki household. She had been unable to just go to their training at the Hyuuga compounds, so decided to wait where her grandchildren were sure to arrive sometime.

The former Hokage was just given some tea by Hinata, who in turn settled into a seat across from the older woman.

"Thank you Hinata," she said simply.

"It is my pleasure, Godaime-sama."

The older woman took a sip from the tea and then rolled her eyes. "You know Hinata, you can drop the formalities. I am right now a woman come to visit her grandchildren, so in that reasoning you are family to me too."

Hinata remained firm, "it would not be proper. Gomen, Godaime-sama."

Tsunade smiled a bit, "even after all these years, I still find it hard to believe that one like you could have fallen for Naruto. He never had a problem with informalities, even when I was his boss. And I'm pretty sure that you don't call him Hokage-sama."

"Well, Naruto-kun is a…unique case." Hinata said softly.

"Which of course means that you still find his idiocy endearing," she replied.

They chatted for a while, Tsunade remarked that for their youngest kids she wondered if Naruto and Sasuke planned to get their wives pregnant around the same time.

Even though she kept her tone light and playful, and Hinata gained a slight blush at the insinuation, the older woman still felt a pang of sorrow that she would probably not be around to see the new ones.

Some of it must have shown on her face as Hinata seemed to catch it and looked ready to ask. Tsunade was thanking Kami for an interruption, as the door of the home swung in and Naruto bounded into the room.

"Hey Hinata-hi…" his words died when he saw his predecessor sitting there, though he still fixed a grin on his face. "Oba-chan."

"Damn it Naruto, when will you stop with that?"

Naruto seemed to think about it for a moment, finger on his chin, "Hmmm, never."

"Gaki," Tsunade muttered. She no longer reacted violently to this, but it was still damned annoying.

"Hinata-hime," Naruto said now turning to his wife. "It's been a while but can you tell me where my traveling gear is?"

Hinata looked confused for a moment, "it the closet, why?"

Naruto took off up the stairs, "I'm leaving in a few days for about a week and just wanna make sure I have all of my stuff ready. I'm looking forward to it too, I hardly ever get out anymore."

After a short while he came back down, with a smile, all of her gear must have been ready. He went over to his wife and ignoring the other company pulled her into an embrace and their lips met. Then he got down to one knee and brushed his lips to her stomach, causing her to giggle. "Love you both. Well I should be getting back to work."

Hinata laughed a bit, "You came home just to get your stuff ready? It could have waited until the end of the day."

He laughed standing up, "yeah I guess so but just wanted to be ready."

When he stood Tsunade spoke, slightly perturbed by the display she had just witnessed. "Where are you going?"

"The Mizukage has called a Kage meeting, something big is going on I can feel it," Naruto said with a smile.

"This is serious," Tsunade said. "I know that man and he would never call a meeting like this unless absolutely necessary."

"That's true," Naruto responded as he started to head to the door. "But as I said, I hardly ever get out of the village. I'll be home later."

"I'll see you later," Hinata said to his retreating back, causing him to turn back to her with a wide grin.

"Of course."

Hinata turned back to her guest smiling before it soon faded from her, "so what's wrong, Godaime-sama?"

'Damn of course she would ask,' Tsunade sighed. "Nothing is wrong, just feeling a bit under the weather."

Hinata's eyebrows raised, "Tsunade-sama." This had sent a shock through the blonde woman, "I may not be as good at it as Nii-san, but there is not much anyone can hide from me."

Tsunade shrugged, "lets just say that it's not anything I want people to worry about, ok?"

Hinata nodded and made no further inquiries.

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The day had arrived and the group soon found themselves at the gates of the inviting village.

Kiba was complaining loudly, "man that was a weird feeling." He said after being spat out by one of Kawazu's summons. Brushing himself off, "I never want to do that again."

"You get used to it," Kawazu said with a slight smirk.

"No I don't," the disguised Inuzuka said. "I'd rather walk back to our village than do that again."

"Quiet," Neji spoke at this point. "We have a job to do and, really should not be casting suspicion on ourselves."

"He's right 'dog'," said Shikamaru. "You're supposed to be Anbu now, so act the part."

The six men walked toward the gates, the 'Anbu' flanking Naruto, Kawazu, and Shikamaru.

They were soon greeted by the guards who bowed to the visiting Kage.

"Welcome, Hokage-sama." Said one.

The other spoke, "Mizukage-sama is grateful for your visit and awaits you in his home."

Naruto nodded to the two, "his hospitality is appreciated. I wonder if you can tell me if any of the others have arrived."

They shook their heads, "no, you are the first to arrive."

The other spoke up again, "now please follow me."

Naruto was greeted by the older Kage, "welcome Hokage-sama. I thank you for accepting my invitation."

Naruto bowed to the man, "not at all, Mizukage-sama."

Naruto was then invited into the other leaders study, the others stood 'guard' outside. "Would you be interested in some tea? Or perhaps something a bit stronger."

"Tea is fine thank you."

The two settled down and continued talking, exchanging more pleasantries.

"So I am assuming that your lovely wife did not come here with you?" the older man said lightly.

Naruto chuckled a bit, "no she is restricted in travel and other strenuous activities."

"Shame," the Mizukage said. "Nothing wrong I hope?"

"No she is expecting, so doctors orders and all." Naruto said with a smile.

"Well it seems congratulations are in order."

"Thanks," Naruto said. He took another sip of his tea, and almost choked on it with what the other man said next.

"I wish she had come, after all her eyes would be useful."

Naruto stared at him, "what are you saying?"

"Nothing like that, I assure you." The Mizukage said. "But with the reason that I requested this meeting, it will make sense once I explain everything."

Naruto shifted in his seat a bit, both out of agitation of the other mans mention of his wife. And also due to the fact that there was a Byukugan user just outside the door.

The older man watched him shrewdly, then realization crossed his face. "You brought a Hyuuga with you didn't you?"

Naruto said nothing and the other man continued.

"You assumed I was hiding something." He sighed. "I can see why you would think that, after all the fact that I requested a meeting is suspicious enough. I hope I am right, that one of your guards is a Hyuuga with instructions to search for any hidden secrets."

Naruto stared at him, "how did you guess?" he asked sheepishly.

"Please I would have expected no less," the Mizukage said. "I'd have done the same, truth be told. It is unnecessary as I have every intention in saying exactly why I called you all. But it does help in one particular issue."

"What issue is that?"

"I will give more details later to all of you," the other said. "But one of our own was attacked by what we assume was a Juken user, it is useful as a Hyuuga would be able to verify that it was indeed the charka points that were hit in the attack."

Naruto mulled it over, "well if you are being truthful, then I suppose there is no point in not sharing every thing. The thing of it is, we did not take all of the evidence that we have obtained. If I may I can return to the my village get the information needed and return for the meeting, where we can figure things out."

The Mizukage said, "While I am surprised that you are unprepared, that would be useful, in the meantime I can have the Hyuuga you brought examine the body and determine if my thoughts were correct."

Naruto then proceeded to instruct Neji to go with the Mizukages escort and soon vanished from the village. He had instructed Shikamaru that he would be ready to come back in half an hour later and handed him one of the tri-pronged Kunai.

Within the hour the party from Suna had arrived. Gaara was talking with the Mizukage, while Shikamaru was speaking with Kankaro.

"So how is Shikara?" the puppet master asked.

"She is better, out of the hospital but the medic had ordered her some medical time off." Shikamaru replied.

"What about my sister? Is Temari coping?

"She's fine to." The Nara answered then looked at the clock, "I wonder what could be taking Naruto."

"Something wrong?" Kankaro asked.

"I'm not sure," Shikamaru replied. "Naruto said that he would be back in half an hour that was an hour ago."

"He left to get some more information?" Kankaro asked.

"Yes."

"Maybe it is taking a bit longer than he thought to gather it all up?" Kankaro suggested.

"Maybe, But still I get a bad feeling." Shikamaru said.

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'What is going on?'

This was the thought that snapped Naruto back to consciousness. He was groggy and sore, his head was killing him and he was having difficulty moving.

His mind was sill fuzzy but he tried to remember what happened. 'Mmmm, I remember leaving the hidden mist village and then…blackness.

He tried opening his eyes, but they were already open. The darkness around him was so complete he momentarily wondered if he was blinded by something. His head was killing him, and he was so confused.

Naruto tied to get up, only to not be able to move. His thought process was starting to clear a bit, and it still took him a while but he seemed to realize that he was bound to a chair in some unknown room.

He tested his binds, tentatively. Naruto found that he did not have the strength to break them, not yet anyway. Flexing the fingers that were behind his back, he attempted to use a rasengan to break the shackles.

There was a noise off to the side somewhere; Naruto looked around, trying to see what he could. But it was to no avail. Soon he heard a voice, "awake then are you? I wouldn't bother with that, you are just wasting your time."

Not really sure what to say, Naruto asked the first thing that came to mind. "What do you mean?"

"Chakra suppression seals." Said the voice again simply.

"Where am I? Who are you?" Naruto asked soon enough.

"That is none of your concern." The voice said again. "But now that you are awake, I guess I should let you know something. My leader has already been notified, and in a couple days he will be here to deal with you personally."

Naruto saw the man sneer and it started to come back to him, he had just left the Mist and then he remembered this same smirk and a sudden explosive pain in his temple. "It was you." He said, "Why did you attack me?"

"Again, that is none of your concern. All you have to worry about is what the leader will do when they get here." With that then man opened the door causing a brief flash of light to pierce Narutos eyes. Be fore he closed the door leaving Naruto in the total darkness and to his thoughts, he spoke again, "enjoy your time."

His mind was getting clear. His head still hurt but he could think well enough. His thoughts were no comfort.

He was captured, that much was certain. Someone had figured out his father's jutsu and the seals to the point where they must have been able to redirect him to this place. Therefore no one probably knew were he was, after all there is no way to be certain were he was caught. If he were right, it would take a seal master that surpassed Jiriaya to track him down.

Once again not a comforting thought at all.

Authors note: sorry for the long delay, massive amount of writers block. Hopefully this will hold you over for a bit, cant say when the next one will be but I have ideas for it.

Please review it is appreciated, thanks.


	13. Chapter 13

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Thirteen

'This is impossible…'

That was the first thought that ran through the head of Hyuuga Neji. He was staring down at the cold, dead body lying on the examination table in the morgue of the Mist village.

There was a steely look that was plastered to his face, as he deactivated his bloodline. He straitened up and rubbed at his closed eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and middle fingers.

"So what can you tell us?" said a voice, snapping the stoic man out of his thoughts.

Neji turned to see the Mist-medic watching him expectantly. He sighed, "Your initial thoughts are accurate. All of the chakra points have been stuck with pin-point accuracy." He scanned the room for a moment and paused on a pile of belongings. He barley kept the shock from his face as he saw a very familiar sword among those belongings.

The medic noticed his surprised look and could not help but tense up a bit. He then nodded, though the tense look on his face did not let up. He marked something down on his clipboard, writing for a moment before he spoke again. "What does that tell you?"

"This tells me that the attacker was defiantly a Hyuuga," he flinched a bit. He then corrected himself, "former Hyuuga. And undeniably skilled, to hit all of the points like this is a feat that not all Hyuuga can accomplish."

There was another male voice that spoke, "do you think it possible that this could have been a highly skilled Medic? One that knew the human anatomy perfectly?"

Neji didn't even turn, "No Shikamaru-san. The most skilled medics could not know exactly were the points would be. Not even someone like Lady Tsunade, or Sakura-san. Each body differs slightly; the medics here only gave an approximate guess that the points were closed." He paused a moment, "we are dealing with a missing Hyuuga, this person was able to see the points and was skilled in the style needed to hit them all."

Shikamaru nodded, "well that's troublesome." He ran his fingers through his hair, "I suppose that we should bring your confirmation to the Mizukage. The Suna party is already here and waiting, we are still waiting on the Iwa and Cloud."

The pair began to walk out of the sterile environment, breathing the fresh air deeply as the exited the building in silence.

Neji spoke again, "Naruto has returned?"

Shikamaru shook his head, worriedly. "No it's odd, he left two hours ago. He said that he was getting some documents that we left behind. Honestly was not expecting the Mizukage to be so forth-coming so we opted to leave some more critical information behind."

"Perhaps he is still looking for the information?" Neji offered. "To be perfectly honest, Naruto-sama is not the most organized individual there is."

Shikamaru scoffed, "Please as if Naruto would be the one to file that information, it can be easily found. I processed it myself." Shikamaru's eyes grew canny for a moment; "maybe he is using this as an excuse to spend some 'quality time' with Hinata."

"Excuse me?" spat Neji. And Shikamaru blanched, remembering whom he was talking to. Regaining his composure after thinking about his cousin…well never mind, Neji cleared his throat; "perhaps we should send Kawazu-san to check on him, if he is not back yet that is."

"Might be for the best…still keeping tabs on your boss, must be how Shizune feels for all those years." Shikamaru sighed.

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Konohamaru had his head resting on his palm, staring unseeing as the twelve-year-old blond Konoichi was trying different tactics at getting a better mission than her father had allowed for the new Genin.

Right now she was acting so sickly sweet, that all Konohamaru could do to refuse her is remember that he would be in a world of hurt if he allowed it and something happened. "Please, uncle…you know that we can handle it. We have before and we'll be extra careful…"

The stand-in Hokage rubbed his temple, 'how the hell does Naruto manage this?' and 'do I still want to do this job?' were some of the thoughts that drifted through his head.

He sat a bit straighter and sighed internally, 'annoying kids, I was never like that.' Konohamaru then folded his hands on the desk in front of him, "Hana, you have to follow orders, just as I have to. And this was a direct order from the Hokage, all Rookie genin squads are confined to D-rank and training inside the village until further notice."

The girl then pouted for a moment before opening her mouth to recite what Konohamaru was sure was a well-rehearsed line to try to work him over. Well he wasn't about to let her use this newest weapon.

"Just stop right there," it wasn't Konohamaru that spoke but his younger cousin and the girl's sensei, Asuma. "The Hokage gave an order and you will follow it, understand Hana?"

Hana reluctantly closed her mouth again, she may have been able to wear the older Sarutobi down but the same tricks did not apply to her sensei.

Konohamaru looked at his younger cousin gratefully, he flipped through some more files. "so you have a choice, we have a delivery request from the market-place. There is also some demolition and clean up."

Eventually the kids took the market delivery 'mission', and left.

Konohamaru was now in he room with Sasuke. Turning to the older man, "feel free to help out anytime."

"But you were doing such a good job all on your own," Sasuke smirked. "And Naruto did warn you about Hana."

"Yeah, yeah." The younger said with a sigh. "I just don't know how he deals with this job."

"Are you saying that you don't want it anymore?"

Konohamaru thought about it a moment, "let me rephrase that. I don't know how he handles this job and his kids too."

"Not sure of that myself," Sasuke said simply.

"That and it's hardly the beginning of the day, and my mind already feels fried," Konohamaru said. "I could use some relief."

At that moment there was a burst of smoke on the office, when it cleared there was a large toad sitting there with Kawazu at his side.

"You're back so quickly," Sasuke remarked.

The new arrival looked a bit disconcerted at the surprise that was on the faces of the men opposite him. "Can you please tell me if Naruto-sempai has arrived?"

"The boss?" Konohamaru asked. "He is not here."

"Dammit," Kawazu said quietly.

"What's wrong?" Sasuke asked, feeling the answer coming. And it was an unpleasant one.

"Naruto left the mist village to retrieve some vital information that we frankly thought would not be needed. But Mizukage-sama reveled the purpose of the meeting and Naruto left as now that information we have would be of relevance." Kawazu said.

"So, what are you saying?" Konohamaru said.

"That was two hours ago." Kawazu replied.

None of them said anything for a moment, and then Sasuke spoke. "I think based on this there is a very real chance that he was abducted. I couldn't say how, but he is missing now."

"I think you may be right," Kawazu said solemnly. "And it would prove impossible to find him as we now have no idea where, from here to hidden mist, he was taken."

"But wouldn't he have with that Jutsu?" Konohamaru asked. "It would have transported him directly to this office."

"Yes, and that makes it harder. As it seems he may have been snatched out of thin air. It is likely that someone figured out that jutsu and redirected him." Sasuke offered.

"But that should be impossible," Konohamaru argued.

"No Sasuke is right, it should be impossible but we all know that it is seal based," Kawazu said. "If someone managed to get their hands on one of his Kunai, a true seal master could eventually work it out."

"Ok well I am going to take this unfortunate news back to Shikamaru-san," Kawazu said. "I also believe it would be best not to tell anyone of this for now, most of all Hinata-san. After all her husband missing? I think that would cause too much stress, not really good for the baby."

As he said that the toad swallowed him again and disappeared, and both men left felt that last part went without saying. At least until they had some more information, there was absolutely no reason to cause a panic.

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Minato was in a rut. It was great to see his 'grand-mother', but the current climate was a bit stressful.

Shikara was still recovering, and though he was told repeatedly that it was not his fault, but couldn't help but blame himself, as she was the one who protected him.

Sure that was a bit chauvinistic, and she could take care of herself that was true. But he felt the need to protect her…Great, and now that thought was causing a further discomfort, Minato squashed down those thoughts, and what they meant.

But since Shikara was not on active duty, though out of the hospital. Both Minato and Hito opted to forgo the missions, if they could be called that, and focus on their training. They spared a bit and trained together, each working on their own faults.

Right now the young Uzumaki was in the gardens of their family home, and he was trying to focus on the water balloon clutched in his hand. With his Byakugan he could see the water spinning inside, but it just was not enough to burst it.

And unfortunately his father was out of the village at the time and could not give him any tips. He was working in the dark. He knew that his father got it down in a week, Minato already resigned himself that it would take a bit longer than that because he only worked on it in his spare time.

But this was getting frustrating, added onto that the guilt he felt…

"What's wrong, Minato-chan?" his mother settled down next to where he was sitting.

"Kaa-san, I am an adult now." He reminded his mother, seriously she could be so embarrassing. Even when there was no one around.

Hinata smiled down at her son, "oh you will always be my little Minato-chan." Said boy rolled his eyes, but couldn't help a slight smile from gracing his face. "So what is bothering you?"

"Nothing…" he said. His mother said nothing but kept looking at him, with a sigh he said, "everything."

Still she remained silent letting him continue.

"It's just…it's just that what happened with Shikara-chan, and now I can't concentrate enough to even work on this," he said holding the balloon up. "That and Tou-san is out of the village, I can't get any tips on it. Not that it would help despite the fact that I actually have time now to work on it."

Hinata nodded in understanding, "I understand how you are feeling, there where times when I was younger when I felt at fault for something that happened to Kiba-kun or Shino-kun. I thought I was weak and worthless."

Minato sat there, he was aware that his mother was looked down on when she was still part of the Hyuuga clan. But he never saw that, he knew that it took place but he could not imagine it. Both his parents were just so strong.

Hinata continued, "I know that you feel down right now, and I am not sure how much this will help but…this is the world that we live in. I know that Shikara-chan does not blame you, and with good reason, it was not your fault. All I can say is that you will feel better eventually after all, the first anything is the hardest. You are just learning to cope with things like this."

She smiled wider, "but it gets better I promise."

Minato smiled at her, "Thanks, that actually helped a bit." He chuckled, "now if only I can get this thing to work."

"Hmmm, while I can't help you with the rasengan, you could ask Konohamaru-san about that, I'm sure that he would be able to help." Hinata said.

"Really?"

"Yes, from what I heard, he started learning it from your father when he was eight-years-old." Hinata said with a smile, "it took him bit longer, but he got it down by the time that he became a genin."

"Thanks, Kaa-san." Minato stood and began to head for the Hokage tower, where he knew that Konohamaru was filling in for his father, "that was a great help."

"Glad to do it," she said.

Minato made his way to the offices, looking forward to showing his father that he mastered to first step by the time he came home.

All thought were driven from his head as he heard voices coming from the office in the tower, he heard Kawazu speaking quietly. That threw him off, Kawazu was in mist. That and the fact that the room was not sealed for sound.

As it was all he heard was the last words…"all Hinata-san. After all her husband missing? I think that would cause too much stress, not really good for the baby."

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Kawazu soon found himself back in the Hidden mist village, where he was greeted by Shikamaru. "So what's keeping him?" he asked this trying to be light, but that damn brain of his already figured out the truth by the barely concealed discomfort on Kawazu's face.

And then of course the toad sage confirmed what he thought, quietly.

Shikamaru thought about this for a moment, then whispered back to Kawazu. "Keep this to yourself. There other Kage's are not to know about it. Despite the good relations we may have, being seen as weakened would not be a good idea."

"What about the fact that he's gone?" Kawazu asked. "That and the fact that they will suspect when he does not show."

Shikamaru rubbed his forehead, "If I had any idea were to even begin looking, I'd be the first one there. As it stands, we don't." He sighed, and I will think of something for the others…hate to say that I may have to tell them what happened, but I'll deal with that should the time come."

Kawazu nodded in agreement, "this is going to be a troubling time, huh?"

Shikamaru agreed with that sentiment, "I think I need a cigarette."

Authors note: well there we go, another chap in the bag. Wow this one just flowed right through me. Now one other thing when I last looked, on the last chapter…Three reviews? Really? And I was so proud of that one, especially with that twist there. As I said before, id hate to be a review whore, but please if you liked it let me know, if not let me know why. That's the whole pint of this site isn't it?


	14. Chapter 14

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Fourteen

"He's been gone for almost a day. The other Kage's are wondering what we are not telling them, if they haven't figured it out already," Neji was whispering this urgently to a weary Shikamaru.

The chief strategic advisor rubbed his eyes wearily. Since Naruto's disappearance the other Kage's had arrived. And while the meeting was not sent for another day, they would eventually grow suspicious. Especially when Naruto didn't show for the meeting.

The party from Konoha was in a private room that was supplied to them by the Mizukage. It was sealed for sound and any other type of eavesdroppers. In the room sat Shikamaru and Shino, Kiba was pacing and Neji was leaning against the wall.

The only missing where Kawazu and, of course, Naruto.

"We should be looking for him," Kiba burst out angrily. "We should not be sitting on our asses when he is missing!"

"You are not sitting," Shino observed. "In fact you will wear through the floor pacing."

"Oh, shut-up," muttered Kiba. "The point is we are part of the greatest tracking team Konoha ever assembled, what do you think Hinata would say if she knew what we are doing, especially considering who…"

"And what do you intend to do Kiba?" Shikamaru finally spoke, cutting off the rant. "We have been over this; the best tracker in the world would be utterly useless if they didn't know where to start looking."

"But we do know," Kiba said. "Kawazu is looking for it now…"

"He is looking for a seal," Shikamaru continued. "We all agreed that Naruto's jutsu was most likely redirected. And that he must have crossed a line, a trap that was set up by the enemy. It is likely that the line we need to find was placed around our village, just waiting to be triggered when Naruto passed over it with that jutsu."

"Then that should be what we look for, I don't understand why Kawazu had to go on his own," Kiba spat.

"He went on his own because if this line is there then he can find it," Shikamaru began, growing annoyed. "He went on his own because he is a true seal master; he seems to have inherited his fathers' gift for it. He is far more skilled with them than Naruto."

Then he locked eyes with the irate Inuzuka, "he went alone because if we all went we might as well march out of the room and shout to the others that Naruto is missing. Besides all of that is pointless now, even if we wanted to go back we'd have to walk, there is no one here that can transport us like the two that are not here."

Kiba made no other argument after that, but he still didn't like it. Well none of them did, but they had to keep up appearances, at least for the sake of their village.

They fell into a silence that only lasted a few moments before it was disrupted by a knock at their door. Upon lowering the seal and answering it, Shikamaru was greeted by Gaara.

"Kazekage-sama," He muttered with a slight bow as he invited the red haired man inside, who was followed closely by Kankuro.

Gaara waved off the greeting, "please Shikamaru, none of that. We are family after all."

Shikamaru shrugged, "how are you Gaara? We have not had a chance to talk yet."

"I am well," Gaara answered, almost too formally. "I have not yet had the chance to ask, but how are Shikara, and Temari? Are they doing well?"

Shikamaru nodded, "they are both fine. Shikara was released from the hospital before I came here. She will make a full recovery."

Gaara smiled, "that is good news. I am relieved to hear it."

They sat in silence for a moment before Gaara spoke again, "so…what happened to Naruto?"

A nervous tension filled the room; it was such that you needn't be a Hyuuga to be able to read the discomfort present.

"I'm sorry?" Shikamaru asked.

Gaara gave him a flat stare, "do not take me for a fool. He should have been back before now. The others suspect something, and it won't be long before the figure it out. But you must have already figured that out by now. So, what happened to him?"

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Two shinobi were moving slowly through the wood surrounding the village of Konoha. Slowly that is for a shinobi's pace.

They were still covering ground quickly and stopping at strategic intervals, in order to allow the Hyuuga there to scan the surrounding area thoroughly.

Kawazu had returned to the village after delivering information of the suspected problem they now faced. When Shikamaru had heard the news he immediately ordered Kawazu back to the village, where he was to have Konohamaru find a tracker, preferably Hyuuga, to assist him.

And so Hyuuga Hana had been ordered to help Kawazu find some type of chakra line suspected to be on the floor of the forest surrounding the village.

As they went to their next stop, Hana kept shooting furtive looks at the man with her. Sometimes she kept boring her eyes into the back of the man's head at the times he walked ahead of her.

Kawazu could feel her gaze on the back of his head, it was almost unnerving. She was not putting any killing intent into it, but the younger woman was distracting him a bit.

After a while he finally broke the silence, "is there something wrong?" He asked without looking back.

She snapped out of her daze, "no, nothing…" she trailed off.

"Then why are you burning a hole in my back?" he asked glibly, still looking forward.

Hana stayed silent for a moment, contemplating what she should say. She was wishing that she kept this professional, for the mission at the very least. "I'm sorry, it is nothing that can't wait until after the mission," she finally said after the pause.

Kawazu said nothing to this, and they kept moving until the reached the next point.

The pair stopped and Hana activated her Kekkei-Genkai, after scanning a bit she finally found something. "There is a faint chakra signature ahead of us, it is a line running along the ground that looks to curve around the village. But it reaches out of my sight, so I can't confirm ."

Kawazu nodded, "where is it?"

The female Hyuuga pointed, "Just over 200 yards north of us."

They took off again, this time Hana in the lead. After that distance was covered she stopped abruptly, kneeling down she cleared some of the leaves from where the line was.

Not that it could be seen to the naked eye…yet.

"Here it is, right here" she said, motioning to the ground.

Kawazu took a knee beside her, he quickly ran through some hand signs and jabbed his fingers into the earth. "This should do it."

The effect as instantaneous, the ground lit up a faint blue glow and spread off in both directions following the line from where he hit it. Along the line that ran the ground there where larger glowing circular seals every few hundred feet. The two shinobi made their way to the closest one.

Kawazu pulled the scroll from his back and copied it down quickly and accurately. Then with out a word took off for the next one.

Hana watched him work as though he was in a trance, at the third one he stood up again and turned to face her.

Kawazu motioned to the marks on the ground, "all three were the exact same design." He sighed a bit, "I'm willing to bet that they all are, and these seals encompass the entire village all connected with this line."

"So what, are we going to check every single one of them?" Hana asked, thinking this could take a long time.

Kawazu shook his head, "I don't think that is necessary. How many of these can you see in either direction?"

Hana thought about it a bit. Well, based on how far they are spaced, I'd say 10 maybe 15 of them in either direction."

"Then do it," he replied. "And tell me if they all match."

The Hyuuga nodded, still wondering what was going on. Konohamaru had not been very forthcoming, but even though she did not know what they were here for, orders where orders.

She looked, carefully comparing the seal in front of her to all the others she was able to see. After a few minutes she finally deactivated her Byakugan and spoke, "they are all exactly the same." She was a little woozy, "I pushed it as far as I could, was able to see 14 either way, and they are all the same."

Kawazu nodded and rolled up his scroll, he strapped it to his back again and then bit into his thumb. "It's time to head back," with than he flashed through the required hand signs and slammed his palm into the ground.

A large toad was sitting there, "what do you need boss?"

Kawazu nodded to Hana and spoke to the toad, "the two of us need to get back to the village, her first."

Hana looked confused at the man, "what does that mean?"

Before she got any answer the toad's massive tongue was wrapped around her waist. "Wait, what the hell…" he sentence being cut off as the toad swallowed her whole.

The toad then turned to his boss, and Kawazu raised his hand, "just one more thing." He reached into his pouch and produced a scroll and another brush, unfurling a bit of the paper he tore off a section of it. The man then spread the paper on top of the still glowing seal, and quickly drew a seal on it.

After channeling some chakra into that new seal, the existing one in the ground and the line began to smoke and fade completely, followed by a chain reaction that caused the entire array to fade from view.

He straitened up and nodded to the toad that was still waiting for him, "that will take care it things."

The summons tongue shot out again, enveloping the man, before he swallowed him too and disappeared from the woods.

The toad reappeared in the Hokage office where Konohamaru, Sasuke, and Minato were waiting. After spitting out a disheveled Hana and Kawazu it gave a quick salute to it's summoner and vanished in a burst of smoke.

"Did you find it?" Sasuke asked with out preamble.

Kawazu nodded, "I would not have come back until I did."

Hana stood and brushed herself off, Konohamaru spoke to her. "Thanks for your help, Hana-san, you may leave."

She looked around a bit and complied, before she reached the door she turned back and address Kawazu. "When you are done, as I can tell this is important, I want to talk to you." She said with a slight glare.

The rest were left in silence as the door closed, and Konohamaru turned to Kawazu, "what the hell did you do?" he asked curiously.

"I'm not sure," he replied.

"Whatever it is, it is unimportant," Sasuke said. "So do you think we can find him?"

Kawazu eyed the young genin boy sitting there, "maybe we should…"

"I already know," Minato said simply, and through a forced calm. "I overheard you before."

Kawazu looked apologetic, "I am sorry you heard that then."

"It doesn't matter," Minato said. "I agree that it is not something my mother should be told of yet, but I want to know."

The toad sage nodded and pulled the scroll from his back, he unfurled it and spread it out across the desk. "This is one of the most complicated seals that I have ever seen," he said in a grudging respect for the work in front of him.

"Can it be deciphered?" Sasuke asked.

"All seals can be cracked, none of them are infallible." Kawazu replied. "But this one is a master piece, someone really worked hard on this one."

"Do you really think this can tell us where my father is?" Minato asked some worry now in his voice.

Kawazu nodded with certainty, "yes, given enough time…"

"I don't like that sound of that," Konohamaru said. "How much time?"

He hated the answer that he had to give, "I'd say about a month," Kawazu replied.

"Not good enough," Sasuke said simply.

"You think I like this anymore than you?" Kawazu snapped. "What do you suggest I do?"

"Set a speed record," Konohamaru said darkly. "And when you are done, head to the Mist village. Let our people there know what you found. The Hokage library will be at your disposal if you need it, just get it done."

"Right."

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Naruto's head was hanging down, he was hungry, and he was thirsty. It had been three days since he was caught, and he did not get a single drop of water or a crumb of food.

It was no problem, he had gone hungry before. Naruto could deal with it, he had grown up putting up with this type of thing his entire childhood. Compared to what he had seen this was a minor inconvenience.

But he was also being sleep deprived, every time the weariness started to claim him, he received a sharp jab in the gut.

This was not helping his already aching stomach, and this shit was really starting to piss him off.

He had already found it pointless to try to escape. The seals around him suppressed his chakra with upmost efficiency. None of his power was accessible.

He was sure that with his Sage power he could break free, but he of course needed his own chakra to draw on it. Many thought that when he signed over the rights as the toad sage, he lost that power.

Let them think that…it would allow for a good surprise should the time come.

The truth was that even though Kawazu was the official sage for the toads, Naruto was still contracted with them. Besides he put so much effort in training his body for that power, it could not be stripped away by simply signing a scroll.

He just never had to rely on it since he first really used it, all those years ago.

Still contemplating his dilemma, he found the worst part of it.

He was bored out of his skull. Despite how much he had grown, how much he'd changed, he still found it difficult to sit still for too long.

It was out of that sheer boredom that he did what he did; it was way past time to start screwing with his tormentors after all.

"Say you would happen to have some ramen, would you?" he managed to say. Though he was talking about one of the most wonderful things in the world, the words still felt like they were physically gnawing at his parched throat.

He was again ignored.

Since his 'incarceration' Naruto felt repulsed by the situation. He was now at the mercy, or lack of, by an organization that seemed to want him dead. Then why have they not done it yet? What was the true purpose of this group?

He could not be sure, but he just wanted to find out before they killed him.

"So what's the plan?" he asked his captor in a light manner. "Are you trying to break me? Are you trying to get information of my village out of me?"

There was no answer from the other in the room; Naruto did his best to sound indifferent. "Because if that is the case, you might as well just kill me…cause I will tell you nothing."

Again, no answer. Naruto kept talking, "or are you're orders just to keep me alive and weak long enough for your pansy-ass boss to finish me off. What's the matter, is he too much of a wuss that he can only finish it when his victim can't depend himself?"

It was at this point that the guard stiffened a bit, and this brought a smile to Naruto's face. "That's it isn't it? Your boss is such a pathetic coward that he has to resort to such a low tactic to get what he wants."

The other man jumped up at this point, and Naruto knew that the poor fool was playing right into his hands.

"Don't ever disrespect him like that!" the man shouted, finally unable to talk the blonde man's nonsense. "Kengen-sama is a great man; he will reshape the world as it should be!"

"Kengen, huh?" Naruto asked, leaving the other man's mouth open in horror that he had so foolishly revealed such a thing. Naruto smirked at the reaction, "is that his real name? Or is that a name he fashioned for himself?"

The blonde captive shrugged, almost as though he was bored, "cause if that's the case, it is really arrogant calling himself that. Especially if you consider how much of a little shit this guy must be…"

Naruto was cut off when a solid blow was delivered to his face. His nose was left bleeding, and it must have broken. The blood was pouring down his face, and sprayed out a bit when Naruto started laughing.

It was hysterical laughter, and the man had difficulty speaking while gasping for air between the bouts of his mirth.

"Is…that…all…you…got?" He managed to gasp out during his laughter, which only served to infuriate the guard further. "I know a seventy-five year old woman that hits harder than you." He said when his breathing got under control.

The man stuck him again, this time harder and in the stomach. The result of which caused the air to be driven out of the laughing captive.

Naruto gasped for air and looked at the satisfied smirk his captor wore. Soon he had his breath back and immediately began laughing again. "No, wait scratch that. When I was a kid there was a 12 year old girl that packed a bigger punch then you." He chuckled softly, "and I'm willing to bet that boss of yours is just as, if not more, limp-wristed as you.

At that point the man holding him captive did not care about his orders, the smirk was wiped from his face as he glared at the blonde bastard insulting him…insulting his master.

A soft flash light up before Naruto's eyes as the man's fingers hit a pressure point on his neck. Naruto was now slipping into unconsciousness, but he managed to hear the man talking a bit before passing out.

"Has anyone ever told you how irritating you are?"

Naruto's eyes began to droop, "all…the…time," he answered. And just before Naruto blacked out he smirked, it was entirely possible that he was just seeing things. Especially as the captor has not noticed what looked like sand sliding through the crack under the door.

"Thanks for letting me sleep," Naruto managed to get out before he did pass out.

He was also not sure if that horrific scream he heard right afterwards was real, 'hell I'll find out soon enough.'

Authors note: well thanks for reading, as for the name of the antagonist Kengen, the translation means ******power, authority****. **I hopethat you enjoyed this chapter, I hope to have the next out soon too. Let me know what you think.


	15. Chapter 15

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Fifteen

It had been slow work, slow tedious work, but he had done it.

Unfortunately he did not have time to pat himself on the back, but he barely thought about that as he rushed to the Hokage's office.

After hours upon hours of pouring over scrolls and notes that Naruto, himself had written. But even getting those notes took some doing. Kawazu had to convince Minato to sneak the secrets of his fathers and grandfathers prized jutsu.

Convincing him to do it was not that hard, all he needed to say was that it was needed to help his father.

The difficulty was in the fact that he could not let Hinata find out about it. Minato wasn't allowed to begin studying that until his father had said so after all. And even then, it was never to leave the house.

But he treated it like a mission, and got it out without his mother knowing. 'At least the kid has skill,' Kawazu thought as he made it to the office.

When he opened the door he was greeted by Konohamaru and Sasuke, who had been waiting for him.

With out preamble Konohamaru asked, "did you find out were he is?"

"Hai," Kawazu replied. "I can have my toad take me to the closest point I have to that location and make it out there in a day."

"A day?" Sasuke asked, to which Kawazu nodded. "A full day?"

"Hai."

"Isn't that cutting it kind of close?" Konohamaru fretted.

"With all due respect," Kawazu started, "we can't know how close we are cutting it, as we don't know how long he has to begin with." He sounded a little annoyed.

The look of shock that came across the faces of the other two in the room caused him to apologize quickly. "Sorry, just a little tired."

Konohamaru nodded, "tired? Alright, Sasuke will go with you then."

"What?" Sasuke asked. "That was not what I was supposed to do."

"Yeah," Konohamaru agreed. "And that was when the boss was at a conference, he left me in charge so I have to stay here. Kawazu is tired, so consider this an order from the Hokage's office."

"Fair enough," Sasuke smirked. He was looking for a bit of fun now anyway.

"Good," Konohamaru said. He then turned back to Kawazu, "So where is the closest place you can go to from there?"

"Suna."

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Minato stood in the middle of a wide river that cut through the training grounds. After the news of what had happened he had asked Konohamaru for tips on the completion of the rasengan. The stand-in Kage had told him that he was doing everything right, all he needed was time and practice.

Therefore he continued his practice while simultaneously water walking, in an effort to fine tune his control.

He had gone home only twice so far, both times concerning the scroll that was needed for Kawazu's project. Trying to avoid his mother was difficult, did she never leave?

The second time he went home he dropped off the scrolls and returned to his training, his efforts redoubled. He was determined to get at least the second step finished if…no, when his father came home.

It was simpler this way; he really could not be around home right now.

Hiding the truth from his mother, and others, would be difficult. It was best if he could just focus on this training.

Unfortunately, fate seemed to have other ideas.

"Minato-kun," he heard a voice call out to him. He did not answer his friend, hoping she would leave him be.

"Hey are you listening?" came the annoyed voice of his teammate. Shikara slowly ambled up to the river bank, still taking it easy per doctor's orders.

'No such luck, Kami must have it out for me,' he thought. Normally he would always have time for his closest friend, maybe he should act normally. Shikara would piece it together if he let on that anything was wrong. 'She's too smart for my own good.'

Minato turned to the blonde girl, and put a look of surprise on his face. "Shikara-chan?" he walked over to her, "sorry I must have been in my own little world, just trying to perfect this jutsu."

She sat at the river-side, allowing her feet to dip a bit in the water, as he sat down next to her. She eyed the balloon in his hand, "Training huh?" She punched his shoulder playfully, "you could have gotten me, I needed to get out of the house."

"Sorry, must have slipped my mind," he muttered.

"Teme, some friend you are." She cast a critical look at him, "something wrong?"

"N-no," he said a little too quickly.

"What's wrong," Shikara persisted.

"Nothing," Minato insisted and turning back to training said, "I just wanted to concentrate on my training, so please you're disrupting me."

His statement caused them both to be taken aback. He never talked this way, especially to her.

She was the first to react, Shikara walked around to face him and then snatched the rubber ball from his hand and glared, causing Minato to shy back.

"Don't lie to me," she said in a deadly whisper. "Now, I can tell that something is bothering you. I can also tell that it must be something that you can't talk about so I won't ask. But if you continue on like this, putting all of your energy into training, then you will burn your self out."

Minato thought about it, she did raise a good point. But he still could not take his mind off of what had happened.

His thoughts must have shown on his face, as he soon felt his friends hand grip his wrist, and she began to lead him away from the training grounds. "What are you…?"

She spoke over him, "if there is one thing that I have learned from my father it is the importance of relaxing every so often, especially with friends." She grinned back at the boy that was trailing her, "that said, you are going to treat me to lunch."

Minato's eyes widened, then became half lidded with a dubious look, "how does that help me?"

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It was hot, and dry. Even considering how dazed he was, Naruto knew that he was in the desert.

The harsh sun was beating down on his face, almost blinding him despite the fact that his eyes were shut. There was a high, coarse wind that whipped against him. It felt like being caught in a sand storm.

He'd be sweating were he not so dehydrated; the only thing that crossed his mind was the thought of what fresh hell this was.

His head started to clear and he shifted a bit, Naruto had the odd sensation of movement. It was a relatively high speed, and his stomach would have been churning if it had anything in it.

He sat up, and cupped his face gingerly, wincing slightly as he fingers brushed against his tender nose. He didn't even register the fact that his hands were free.

"Oh good, you are awake." There was a voice, it sounded a bit playful and grave at the same time. It sounded very familiar.

The sensation of movement began to fade. Was he slowing down? The wind was dying down and his sense of direction almost felt like he was descending.

"Where am I?" It hurt to talk, so he had left it at that. Trying to say much more was too painful.

The voice sounded again, and Naruto could not place where he'd heard before but was sure he had. Maybe the hit to the head was harder than he had thought. "You are safe, for now. You are in the middle of the Wind country, I just happened across you as I made my way across my desert."

As the voice spoke the feeling of movement ceased, the wind that was whipping his face died out. Naruto opened his eyes; they were dry and gritty like the rest of him. After his vision adjusted he looked around.

He was indeed in the middle of the desert; the dunes of sand all around him blocked the sight of any possible civilization. Naruto's mind was working clearer now and his mind registered something else.

Whoever was talking to him, was not there.

He tried talking again, but could not get anything out.

The voice spoke to him again, "thirsty huh? Here this should help."

Naruto looked around, hoping that there really was someone there. Maybe someone with a little bit of water, just a little bit enough to sooth his parched throat. Still nothing.

The mysterious voice seemed to chuckle, "look down."

He did so, and at his side, half buried in the sand, was a canteen. He reached for it as quickly as his sore body would let him. Unscrewing the top he downed a mouth full. It was hot water, and the sand that was in his mouth now caused it to taste of mud. But to hell with it, it was wet.

Naruto peered into the canteen, it was pretty much full. He poured some into his hand to clean it off, he then splashed some on his face, clearing it out of his eyes as best he could.

"Thanks," he managed to say after drinking some more.

"Yeah, I figured it would be useful so I took it before I got you out of there," the voice chuckled. "I'd have taken some of the food, but it probably would have been filled with sand by the time you got to eat it."

"Who are you?" Naruto asked to the voice, wondering if he was going crazy. He wondered if he managed to break himself out, and was now hearing voices.

"What you don't recognize me?"

Naruto thought about it a moment, "there is something familiar about your voice, but I don't see anyone around."

"Are you blind? I'm right down here."

Naruto looked down, his eyes almost skipped over the only living thing near him.

"It's you…" Naruto was staring, open-mouthed. He never thought he would see one of them again, and had pretty much given up the idea of it.

Yet there he sat, resting on its hind legs was a Tanuki, it was no bigger than Pakkun. It seemed that Naruto had finally run into one of the eight sprits that he wanted to see for the past twelve years now.

"Hello, nice to see you recognize me," the small animal spirit said. He then cocked his head at the odd, disbelieving look on the humans face, "What is it?"

Naruto struggled to speak, then after a long moment "Shukaku…"

"That's right," the creature said pleasantly.

Naruto could hardly believe it, he was just saved by one of the entities that he already owed a massive debt to. He couldn't even begin to repay them for what they had done for him.

"I've searched for years, kept an eye and ear open for even the smallest hint of your return." Naruto said having finally gotten over his shock.

Shukaku eyed him wearily, "why?"

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked incredulously. "Why did I look for you? I wanted to, at the very least, thank you for what you had done for me. You all gave me my life back, you let me be there for my wife…for my children. Why wouldn't I want to find you?"

"That was the least we could have done, considering what you were willing to give up," the animal said. He did relax a bit, for a moment there his mind went to a dark place, and he doubted Naruto's intentions.

"And now you saved me again," Naruto continued. "I can't begin to thank you enough."

"Thanks are not needed," Shukaku said. "The others may have felt their debt to you paid, but I still owed you personally. You rid the world of the Kyuubi, but what your cause did for me…you freed me from the corrupting power of that demon."

They fell into silence for a moment, "but now we are even, so don't go looking for help from us," Shukaku said.

"Fair enough," Naruto said. He then began to look around, "so where is this compound? I need to look around it and find any information I can."

"You are far from the place where it was located. I brought you here, we are about a days walk for you from Suna." Shukaku said, "I brought you as close as I care to go to that village, you'll understand why I won't go closer."

Naruto was confused, was he dodging the question? "I don't want to go to Suna," he said. "Not yet anyway, I need to get to this compound. I need to find whatever information I can, and they must have had some form of seal there I have to get rid of."

Skukaku laughed, "That is a five day walk for you. And before you ask I will not take you back there, it is already destroyed and buried. There is nothing to see there anymore."

"You buried it!?"

"That's right, right after I crushed the entire building, destroying everything inside," he answered. "It was the price they paid for doing whatever they were in MY desert, the sand claimed it."

"So there is now way for me to find out anything about these people from that place?" Naruto inflection held a fair bit of disappointment.

"Did you really want to go back to a place that could very well be swarming with 'these people' by the time you got there, and in your condition no less?"

"I just wanted to find out what I could, and then leave before any reinforcements arrived," Naruto said.

"There was nothing there that would have been of any use to you anyway," Shukaku said. "It was just a glorified shack. Counting the room I found you in, it was only three rooms. A bathroom, and living quarters. The only thing of any note was that seal you mentioned, and it was destroyed along with the rest of it. It became a nice desert coffin for the guard that was there."

Naruto looked at the little creature with shock on his face, "I can't believe that you crushed the entire thing."

The animal spirit gave him a very flat look, "no need to be surprised. Don't let my size fool you, my power here is every grain of sand itself."

Naruto nodded, "well, I guess there is nothing to be done about it now. So how fast to Suna?"

"I said that it was a day's walk for you, I suggest moving at night and in the early morning. Rest during the day, it can be a bit harsh for you."

"You said you can't take me, and I get that. But will you point me in the right direction?"

"I will do better than that." with that there was a surge of chakra, suddenly a long ridge of sand stone rose from the ground and stretched out into the distance. Shukaku now sat on top of the wall.

He pointed to one side of it, "Keep on this side and the wall to your right. At the end of it Suna will be in sight, it will provide you with some shade for your travel. But don't take too long, after two days it will collapse back into sand."

"I guess then, I won't be seeing you again, huh?" Naruto asked as he looked at the wall.

"Neither myself or any of us, we all prefer our solace, and just want to be left alone."

Naruto grinned, "Well you don't have to worry about me, I will never say anything about this."

Shukaku nodded, "thank you…good-bye."

With that he jumped back to the ground and sank into the sand, never to be seen again.

Naruto was left to look forward to a long day ahead of him, but he had plenty to think about…there was much work to be done.

WARNING MAJOR SPOILER

DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING IF YOU DID NOT READ MANGA ISSUES 437-438 OR PREFER TO WATCH THE SHOW.

The time all naruhina fans have been waiting for has finally come to pass. Followed very quickly by something I never wanted to see.

As you may know Hinata confessed her feelings to Naruto, only to be "killed" by Pein. I say it like that because I don't believe she is dead, she will survive mark my words on that. After all they already showed that she was not finished off by Pein, she is still alive.

If, however, they choose to let her die from the injuries that she sustained, I only have one thing to say.

YOU (the following insanely long sting of expletives has been deleted due to their ability to make the Kyuubi himself cringe in fear) ASSHOLES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was that necessary? Did you really have to kill her? I swear that if she is really dead the entire series is dead to me. They will have lost a loyal fan and follower. And I'm sure that I'm not the only one.

Sorry for the rant, I had to get it out.

It is all beside the point as I am certain she will not die from this. After all let's look at the facts.

There are people watching the fight, namely two random Hyuuga branch members and Sakura. I know they will do what they have to do to help her. Sakura already said she would.

There are four of the slugs nearby as well, Tsunade's summons that are capable of protecting and healing the people of the village. Therefore everyone else knows in the village now, the slugs are relaying the situation of Hinata.

And finally, it is simply not necessary. Naruto has lost enough; he is an orphan, his sensei Jiraiya died. His other sensei Kakashi could be dead, his "older sister" Shizune is dead. Enough is enough they simply cant take away the one woman who has ever said "I love you" to him.

I will still continue my stories, regardless of which direction the manga goes. After all, naruhina has to live on somewhere.


	16. Chapter 16

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Sixteen

It was a long day.

Naruto traveled along the sand wall as instructed, but he was unsure if he was getting any closer.

The harsh sun and wind of the desert beat him mercilessly, his canteen was now dry and the grit of the sand was all he could taste. The wall provided some shade early in the day, but now at noon is was non-existent.

He tried to push himself, tried to keep going despite his fatigue. He tried despite the soreness of his exposed skin, which was red from the sunburn and the dry sand filled wind that stung him like a multitude of whips.

With his eyes closed to protect them from the elements, he was running his fingertips along the wall to be sure he kept moving in the right direction.

But it was proving to be too much for even the strongest person to handle, the Shukaku apparently thought he could deal with it but it was no good.

Naruto was hardly even aware of his knees hitting the sand as he collapsed from the exhaustion and heat. He was hardly aware of anything except a face that swam though his thoughts before he passed out.

'Hinata…'

Many miles away a dark haired woman could not explain the sudden feeling of dread that shot through her, she felt tears sliding down her cheeks but could not tell where it came from.

"Something wrong Hinata?"

She looked up and saw that Sakura was watching her. Hinata dabbed the tears away from her cheeks and looked out into her yard, thinking while she watched Jiraiya holding a small frog and chasing a disgusted and screaming Yuri.

"It's nothing Sakura," she said finally. "I just had a bad feeling run through me, hormones I guess."

"Yeah," Sakura agreed. "I get that too, just the other day some little thing set me off and I couldn't stand the sight of Sasuke…mood swings are really something I could do without."

Hinata laughed, picturing a bewildered Sasuke, cowering as Sakura's rage broke over him. "I think they could do without those too," she said, referring to their respective husbands.

Sakura then launched into a long story of just what had upset her, Hinata was not really paying attention but She felt better at that point, she had the feeling that Naruto was thinking of her. She could not however, explain why this thought caused such a bad feeling to run through her.

Maybe it really was the hormones.

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Hana smirked as she watched two people enjoying lunch.

Well to be fair one of them was enjoying it; the other had a look on his face that displayed his unease with the situation.

Hana knew that her brother cared about the girl that sat opposite him; the two of them were extremely close after all. Minato must be getting the signals too; if it were any more obvious even his father would be able to see them.

A smile always crossed Hana's face whenever she thought of the random women in the village watching her father with what could only be an odd look of hunger in their eyes, and the way that her father never seemed to notice this.

She was sure for a time that his obliviousness was because of her mother, and that her father never noticed anyone else to begin with. Hana would have believed that had her mother not reminisced as to what Naruto was like when he was their age.

Hana pulled herself from her thoughts as she saw Minato helping Shikara to her feet, she also noticed the slight grin on the other blond girls face that suggested she was really in less pain than she let on.

All the same, Minato lifted the girl up and allowed her to piggyback as he slowly meandered through the restaurant district. He looked extremely uncomfortable and yet strangely content.

Hana knew why of course, he was into her…yep, defiantly crushing on the girl. But they had been friends for so long that he must be scared of starting anything, if something goes bad where would that leave them?

"He can be such a wuss sometimes…" Hana found herself musing aloud. This 'date' was a start, and she was happy she suggested it to Shikara as Minato had been very mopey for the past couple days…more so than usual.

'Wonder why that is…'

Before her thoughts could veer off as to what was bothering her brother, Hana heard a slight chuckle. She turned to her left to see Temari watching the others retreating backs.

"He may be," she said, waving her hand carelessly in Minato's general direction. "But at least that's a start, right?"

With that, the older woman disappeared leaving Hana alone, thinking it was a little weird. There must not be much to do in this village if that woman was spying on the young friends.

But then Hana was doing the same, and it was getting now where anyway. She took off as well, her brothers so called love life was damned boring, after all.

Minato felt his sister's presence vanish from the area and he hoped that she really was gone. He contemplated activating his Byakugan, but opted not to. It was not a technique that was to be used for frivolous things, as his uncle and grandfather made sure they drove that idea into his head.

Minato instead decided to simply turn his head and look, and in so doing he immediately wished that he disobeyed Hiashi and Neji, just this once.

Because of where Shikara was positioned their eyes locked. He couldn't help but continue looking as her eyes were a very warm and inviting shade of brown.

He felt his face grow warm, and his mind was not working as quickly as normal. He was sure that the warmth on his face was not caused by his traitorous thoughts…but rather the odd, tingling sensation that had suddenly spread across his lips.

A few confusing moments passed before it finally clicked… 'Oh crap' so much for not complicating things.

As she walked through the village, searching for something else to do, Hana had the weird feeling that she just missed something good.

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It was mostly quiet and still. The only disruption to the peace was the sand shifting in the slight desert wind. Along the wall that surrounded Suna, the wind would sometimes pick up, blasting the stone with sand in a drawn-out attempt to erode the massive defenses.

An older man sat out on the edge of the battlements. His legs dangling freely toward the desert floor. His hair was flecked with gray and his face half-hidden by the partial vale that was attached to his headband.

Baki was enjoying some quiet time that he felt he deserved at this point in his life. He was, for all purposes, retired but was the only person that the Kazekage trusted to watch over the village in his absence.

He had just finished with the days work and wished only to relax and watch the sun set in the clear sky and on sandy horizon.

But it was not to be a quiet night.

Directly below him there was the sound of a muffled explosion and a burst of smoke. He immediately jumped to his feet, suspecting an attack.

Baki paused when he heard familiar voices.

"Ah, this sand is almost as bad as salt water," he heard a deep, rumbling voice. "I hate when you have me come here."

"Relax Gamatai," said another voice dismissively. "This is important."

"I agree with the frog," sounded a female voice. "I'm all wet and now covered with sand…if you guys want to tell me what's going on that'd be good, cause this is gross."

"No worse than a human's mouth girl," muttered the first voice.

"Quiet," said the first. "We need to keep from spreading our presence around. Gamatai, you can go home for now."

There was a grateful grunt, and then a burst of smoke as the massive animal simply vanished.

"Too late for keeping quiet," said the last male voice. "We have company."

Baki had just jumped down to greet the people. He had met a couple of them, one of them frequently. "Hello, Kawazu-san…Uchiha-san."

Kawazu looked slightly annoyed "Baki-sama, how are you?"

Sasuke nodded his greeting to the older man, as did a Hyuuga woman that Baki did not know.

Baki raised an eyebrow at the attitude that the Hokage's emissary was displaying. In his experience Kawazu was a friendly, civil man. It was almost as though he wished they had not been found.

This raised questions, but whatever the reason they were there for, he trusted that it was not a sinister one. He still had to find out.

"As I'm sure you are aware the Kazekage is not here, is there a specific reason to your visit?" Baki asked.

"This is a matter of secrecy with Konoha," Kawazu said quietly. "And it would be appreciated if our presence was kept quiet until the Hokage decides to reveal our purpose."

Baki eyed the three leaf ninja shrewdly. "The Hokage has made it his ultimate goal to have fewer secrets between the villages, in order to forge more harmonious ties between us," he said stating what was well known to them.

Sasuke was getting annoyed; they were wasting too much time with idle, meaningless talk. "Naruto does wish for less secrecy, but not none altogether. We have no intention of entering your village, and would never cause it harm. Just trust that this is a matter that Konoha must keep to itself…at least for now."

The older Suna Nin contemplated his words. Of course he trusted that they would not instigate trouble with the sand. That trust was based on more than just the alliance, but also the close friendship that the two Kages had. Even though their presence was a cause for question, he could also tell that this was very important.

Baki nodded, "then do what you came to do. Go quickly before an actual patrol comes along and I am forced, by the agreement of our villages, to question you more thoroughly."

With a nod to Baki, the three of them leapt away and began to run. Kawazu was prepared for a long trip. The spot he figured Naruto to be was a full day's journey, and that was not counting the breaks they would need.

Kawazu also prayed that Hana would keep quiet; she seemed to dislike him for some reason. It made for tense moments; especially when he had no idea what he had done to piss her off so much.

Unfortunately, this prayer was unanswered. In fact his thoughts seemed to trigger her.

"So what are we doing out here anyway?" She asked, sick of being told nothing.

Kawazu had already decided to tell her once away from curious eyes and ears. How was she supposed to know that to look for? "We are here because we have…"

"What is that?" Sasuke interrupted, nodding his head forward to indicate that he had spotted something.

Kawazu looked surprised, to where Sasuke indicated. His previous train of thought now broken, he wondered if he made a miscalculation. Had they found it already?

He saw nothing though, he eyes not as sharp as Sasuke's or Hana's.

Sasuke looked back at Hana, and she nodded without being told anything, "I'm on it sensei." The veins around her eyes pulsed and her eyes narrowed as she focused her sight ahead.

Sasuke however rolled his eyes.

"It's a wall," she said. "A sandstone wall that cuts right though the desert, it could go for miles. It has Chakra running though it, which is fading though, that wall is going to come down soon."

"A wall constructed by a justu? And could go for miles?" Kawazu mused. "Who could create such a wall, and why?"

Hana turned back to Kawazu looking annoyed, "is this why we are here? I don't get it."

Sasuke cut in, "look further, do you see anything else?"

She nodded, and pushed more power to her eyes. Hana soon gasped, her eyes went wide and the Byakugan deactivated.

"Something wrong?"

"Naruto-sensei…" she whispered and pulled away from the other two, running faster to clear the distance quicker.

Kawazu and Sasuke exchanged a brief look, picking up their speed; they made to catch up with her.

It didn't take long and soon they were running along side the wall that they had spotted, it was already crumbling back into sand. And before the realized it, they came across Naruto.

He was lying on his back, his nose looked to be broken and the blood was dried on his face, but other than that had no other real mark on him.

Hana was kneeled at his side, her Byakugan active, and she seemed to be scanning him. She finished and turned her head to the two men, "why is he out here?"

Kawazu sighed, "I was about to say, this is the reason we are out here. A few days ago he went missing. Naruto was returning to Konoha to get some information that we needed, and he never came back. That seal we found, I believe that it was a trap for him. When he crossed it using his Hirashin, it redirected him."

"But he was supposed to be further from this place," Sasuke said. He then smirked, "Trust Naruto to escape, and yet still be stuck in the desert."

"How is he, by the way?" Kawazu asked.

Hana frowned, this seemed impossible, how could someone figure that Jutsu out and lay a trap. "He is exhausted, nearly completely drained of chakra, dehydrated and hungry. But he is alive, he will need to get out of this place and rest."

Kawazu nodded, he then bit into his thumb and ran through a series of hand signs. Soon Gamatai and another frog were sitting there.

"What I'm back again?" the larger frog muttered. He then spotted Naruto, "what happened? Is he alright?"

Kawazu spoke, "yes this is a quick trip, Gamatai you will take Hana and Sasuke back to Konoha. And you will take me and Naruto to Myobokuzan." He finished motioning to the other frog.

The two summonses nodded, Hana seemed upset. "Shouldn't we take him to the hospital…"

She was cut off when Naruto stirred, all eyes fell to the blond man. His eyes cracked open and fell on the one closest to him. He smiled and his fingers graced Hana's face, who looked bewildered.

"Hina…" he murmured weakly. He managed to pull her down and was apparently about to kiss her, before his arm fell limp again as he passed out once more.

Sasuke smirked at the girl's expression, she does resemble Hinata greatly especially with that blush. But she seemed too flustered by what had just happened, to realize that it was obviously a mistake.

'At least she shut up for now,' Sasuke thought. "I trust that Kawazu has a plan, so listen to him Hana."

She nodded dumbly.

"Right, we can't bring him to Konoha…it would cause too much trouble," Kawazu said. "We said that we would keep this from the people until or rather if Naruto chooses to divulge it. This news, that our Hokage was actually captured, will cause people to have doubt."

Sasuke nodded, "a small lie is preferable sometimes."

"An omission," corrected Kawazu. "As it would be bad to take him back to Konoha in this state, and all he really needs is rest and food, I will take him to Myobokuzan. The energy there will speed up his recovery, and he will be cared for by the frogs."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. Hana, who seemed to be coming back to herself frowned, "we do we have to go back to Konoha then?"

Kawazu cocked an eyebrow, "what? do you want to be left here?"

She shook her head, "no I want to be able to make sure that Naruto-sensei will be alright. Why can't I go to this Myobokuzan place?"

"Because you are not contracted," Sasuke spoke up. Seeing the blank look on Hana's face he resigned himself to explanation. But first turned to Kawazu and said, "go on and take him, we'll head back."

Kawazu and the other frog soon vanished with Naruto before Hana could protest again.

Sasuke turned to Hana, "I thought I was done teaching you, I guess it is appropriate that you call me Sensei even after all this time."

Hana looked at him with a quizzical expression, and Sasuke elaborated. "There are two things I need to tell you. The first doesn't surprise me that I have to inform you, the Hyuuga are not big on Summons after all."

"What do you mean?"

"Myobokuzan is a mountain that is in the summons realm, on it reside the frogs that Kawazu and Naruto are contracted with," Sasuke began. "As such it is impossible you anyone who is not contracted with that animal to set foot there. The same applies for any of the animals, not that I would ever go to the Snakes home, Manda would hate that."

Hana shrugged, "that makes sense. It's true I don't know much of the summons."

"Just because you don't use a technique doesn't mean you shouldn't learn about it, you will not be caught off guard as often," Sasuke sighed. "Which brings me to my other observation…I have no idea why you seem so angry with Kawazu nor do I care, but you should work it out. If you keep letting emotion into the missions, they will fail."

"What are you talking about?" Hana asked indignantly.

Sasuke just stared at her and said nothing, feeling it was pretty damned clear what he was referring to.

"Are you two done?" asked the annoyed voice of the frog still waiting for them. "The longer you stay out here the more sand I'm gonna be spitting up later."

Authors note: Please read, won't be sorry I promise

Sorry for the long wait, that writers block not to mention work, school, bills, car crap leaves very little time.

I hope you all liked this chapter, hopefully next will be out a bit sooner

Please review

Oh and I have a new link in my profile you all should check out, it is a pic that I commissioned of the family in this story. Hope you like it.

***SPOILER*** read at your own discretion

In light of recent events in the Manga, I just wanna say…thank Kami Hinata is alive. The good that will come from this whole ordeal is that now Naruto is, at the very least, no longer ignorant of what she feels. Here's hoping that he gives her a chance.

And that Sakura doesn't suddenly fall in love with him and fuck it all up.


	17. Chapter 17

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Seventeen

"When do you think he'll wake up?"

"Not sure."

"What if he doesn't wake up?"

"Don't say stuff like that. He is just tired."

Naruto's mind was moving extremely slowly. He was surrounded by anxious voices that all sounded very familiar but was unable to place in any way. The voices were all distant, muffled.

Who were they? What do they want? Was he captured again?

'Wait captured again?'

Naruto's head was working a bit quicker now, he remembered being held prisoner. There was a dark room and a single inept guard.

The guard had said there were others coming were they the voices he was hearing?

No…No that wasn't right. He got away hadn't he?

His mind was getting a bit clearer.

There was help, Shukaku. That's right, he had help the former demon had dispatched the guard and brought him to safety.

And then pointed him in the direction of friends.

'What happened?' Naruto asked himself. 'Did they catch up to me; track me down after the escape?'

He struggled to remember, but it was all a hot, bright blur. His most vivid memory was walking through the desert. He was tired and hungry and his water was gone too.

He remembered sitting down to get in the shade of a wall. And then there was a face, a very familiar and welcome face…

"Hinata," His voice issued from him, and he was hit with a cacophony of noise. The voices all cleared, but there was a massive rushing sound. It sounded like a waterfall.

"Naruto," Several voices all sounded at once, and he opened his eyes.

Looking around, he took in his familiar surroundings, he was on Mt. Myobokuzan. All around him were the various frogs watching him carefully. The all had looks of concern on their faces, which broke into relief when he moved.

Naruto took a deep breath and sat up, noticing that he was in a makeshift hammock from one of the leaves of the enormous plants that grew there. He looked down at himself and also noted that he was in nothing but his boxers, and the bruises that were there generalized around his mid-section.

One of the frogs then spoke, a young frog that Naruto recognized as Gamatachi, the firstborn of Gamakichi. "Your clothes are being cleaned and repaired, Naruto-sama."

He nodded slowly, "What happened?"

The deep, rumbling voice of Gamakichi cut through the air, "Boss, you were found in the middle of the desert by Kawazu, he brought you here to rest before you had to go back to Kiri."

Naruto glanced over at the massive creature, he had grown since the first time that Naruto summoned him. Gamakichi looked like his father, and now the garb and blade that he carried reinforced it. The only thing missing from the new Boss was the battle hardened look and scars his father sported.

A few years ago Gamabunta had retired, leaving to enjoy a quiet life. He named his son as the new boss and passed on his sword and robes.

"Kiri?" Naruto repeated, dazed.

The massive frog grinned, "Still tired huh?" he chuckled. "You know, the meeting that you vanished from…the Kage meeting? I had heard that they were wondering were you disappeared to."

Naruto rubbed the stiffness from his neck, the information snapping him back to normal, "oh right, great, how am I going to explain that?"

The frog gave a shrug.

Naruto slipped down from the leaf, walking over to the water he splashed the cold liquid on his face, waking him up faster.

He noticed that his side hurt with the movement, maybe a bruised rib.

He glanced at his reflection and remembered the fist breaking his nose, it now looked mended and no blood was visible.

He tentative touched it and it was a bit sore but nothing he couldn't handle.

"We cleaned it up and fixed it best we could," one of the frogs, a female, said. "Are you feeling ok?"

"I've been worse, thanks for helping." He said and glanced around, "you said that Kawazu brought me here? Where is he?"

Gamakichi spoke again, "he said that you should be taken to Kiri once you got up and dressed, one of us will transport you there. Kawazu thought it best to go back to the desert, he said that he would go to where he thought you were being held and investigate."

"How did he know were I was?"

"There was a seal that encompassed your entire village, apparently it was meant for you, to redirect you if you crossed it using the Hiraishin," the great frog said. "Kawazu found the seal and cracked it to find the location that you were redirected to."

Naruto shook his head, "fantastic. So whoever did it really did figure out the seal, and laid a trap for me." He sighed, "Well, that'll be the last time they catch me with that. I'm going to have to rework the seal. I used my fathers as a basis for it, they must have figured it from there."

He looked down and spotted his cloths and robes, clean and mended, being placed in front of him by Gamatachi.

"Thanks," he said and began dressing. "So Kawazu went back to investigate there? Alone?"

"I think that he had Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Hana with him when he found you…" Gamakichi replied.

Naruto had a sudden vision of who he thought was Hinata finding him in the sand and trying to… 'Shit!'

"But they were sent back Konoha, I think. He was alone the second time he set out."

Naruto was now dressed, "well he is wasting his time then, there is nothing left there anymore. Is it possible to have someone go and let him know to meet me in Kiri?"

Gamakichi looked down at an ox-sized frog, Gamatou sighed, "all right, all right, I'll go get him after I deliver Naruto-sama…damn sand, don't know why I bothered to clean myself if I kept being sent back there."

When he finished his grumbling, his tongue shot out and wrapped around Naruto, swallowed him and the vanished in a burst of smoke.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

'Well this is uncomfortable.'

It had been a day since Kawazu found Naruto and brought him back to the mountain where the frogs would watch over him.

'Naruto should be waking up soon,' He thought as he made his way though the desert, trying to shake out some of the course sand that had found it way down his pants.

Kawazu hoped to find something, but was not too hopeful. It was better to be sure than not know, so he gave his orders to the frogs and took off.

He was still in his specialized clothing for the desert, a tan colored form-fitting outfit that was 'supposed' to be sealed against the sand.

His face was wrapped to keep it out from his mouth and nose, the goggles helped with his vision, to the extent that they could considering the wind sweeping up massive amounts of desert sand.

So despite the sand being kept from his eyes, it still proved difficult to see farther than 50 feet. And with no landmarks to go by, Kawazu wondered if he would pass his destination by completely.

He was using the boiling sun to direct himself as best he could. He had traveled, relying on his good sense of direction and a bit of luck, for almost a day now.

He was sure that he was getting close though, despite the lack of any positive location markers, Kawazu felt that there was something to be found over the next dune.

As he crested small mountain of shifting sand, he was momentarily disappointed.

There was nothing there, no structure of any kind be it man made or a natural shelter. It was just a wide, clear stretch of nothing.

But something did not feel right to him. There was an odd feeling that made him just stay there, waiting. Taking it as a sign to rest a bit he sat, took a swig from his canteen, and stared off into the distance.

Had he passed it by? He was sure that it must be somewhere in this are. To be fair he was unsure what he was looking for though, Naruto didn't say much before his passed out… 'well aside from unknowingly attempting to romance his wife younger cousin,' he thought with a smirk.

While it was true that Hinata and Hana had similarities, Naruto had to be really far gone to confuse them.

Kawazu prayed that Naruto would be alright.

His inner musing vanished suddenly, there was movement through the haze of the sand.

He flattened himself to the ground quickly, laying there in the hot desert floor he peered over the rise to watch as a small party formed, seeming from out of the air, though simply they had come into the range of his now limited view.

There was a horse drawn carriage, five people could be seen. They all wore the same uniforms but one sat directing the horses at the front of the carriage, and the four others flanked the transport.

They wore similar, protective, clothing to what Kawazu was wearing. Hard white masks covered their faces as opposed to the cloth Kawazu had wrapped around his. He could make out no distinguishing features.

But the hazy air would have prevented that, even if they wore no masks.

The traveling party came to a stop and looked around, one of the figures broke off from the rest and walked an additional five meters.

Kawazu watched as the person looked around again. He took note of the way that this person carried themselves, it suggested massive amounts of physical training and conditioning.

The man, Kawazu guessed from his form, made his way back to the carriage. He kneeled down beside it, and though Kawazu could not see lips moving of hear anything above the wind, the man must be conversing with someone in the carriage.

*****

"What was that?" asked a deep, curt voice that appeared to be attempting to force a calm demeanor.

"Buried, Kengen-sama, the entire building is crushed and buried thirty yards down," the guard said in an emotionless voice. "Number 32 is dead and entombed, sir."

"What of the Hokage?" snapped the first.

"No sign of him my lord."

There was a long silence, "I see…so it seems that two decades of research and experimentation is now wasted. The Hokage is sure to change the formula now, and it is very unlikely that we will catch him in that way again."

He sighed with disappointment, "perhaps I should have ordered him dead on arrival, and it took too long to travel out here for me to do it. Or perhaps I should have had him directed to me initially."

"My lord," the guard spoke up. "You yourself opted against that idea right from the start. It was for this exact reason, if the Hokage managed to escape there he would have surely brought back reinforcements." He kept talking when his leader remained silent, "perhaps he died anyway? He is in the middle of the desert after all, and with nothing to go by he could be lost and die out here."

"Don't insult my intelligence, it is obvious that he was found and rescued. What I am most curious about is how," the leader continued. "The only on I know of that can do something like this is the Kazekage…tell me number five, did you see anything else? Anything that would shed some light on the subject?"

"No my lord, I was focused on the building," he replied. "I will expand my search though."

He said nothing for a long moment, just stayed perfectly still. Then his head snapped up, "my lord I see how the Hokage was found."

"Yes?"

"Upon the sand dune before us is the one there is a person watching us, the one person who could have cracked the seal of ours so quickly and traced it here, Konoha's sage Kawazu."

"I see, that does explain it but it is troubling," the other said. "That man would most defiantly disrupt our plans, he must be gathering Intel."

"Most likely my lord, shall I dispatch him?"

The voice chuckled darkly, "if you can. I know you have done well against the swordsman, but this one is on a completely different level. I trust you know that you face?"

"Of course my lord," the guard murmured. "I believe I can deal with him though, if I don't allow him to draw on that power of his."

"Do not get too complacent number five, that is the downfall of many of these shinobi, and what we exploit. At the very least, make sure he doesn't follow us back."

"I would give my life to further your cause in any way, my lord."

"I know you would, however it would be a shame to lose you should it come to that…but don't fail me," he finished dryly.

*****

Kawazu watched for a long while, the wind prevented him from hearing anything that was being said.

He instead took note of the ornate carriage, this must be a high-ranking person in this organization or perhaps the leader itself.

The white haired sage contemplated attacking and cutting off the head if this group, but opted against it immediately.

If it wasn't the leader, then it would be pointless.

Or if the group was set up into separate cells, then getting rid of one person would not stop anything.

There was also the question of how powerful the people down there were, he could just as easily lose and die right here, helping nothing.

Or for all Kawazu, knew it was just a noble who was traveling. Though it was doubtful, it wasn't unlikely.

No, the best bet was to stay hidden and observe. Perhaps they would lead him somewhere more useful, and help the odds of defeating this group.

But as he watched, the guard that was kneeling at the transport vanished, Kawazu was instantly on his feet and on his guard. There was a sudden spike in chakra and Kawazu quickly shifted to his left as a glowing hand just skimmed past him.

He'd been found out and now he had to deal with a distraction. The carriage and the other guard were already moving away.

Kawazu knew that his plan was over, even after he took this one out they still knew they were being followed and would not lead him back to where they came from.

He surveyed his opponent, and watched as the man shifted into a familiar yet altered stance. It was something that he normally could handle, but this…

It was a variation of the Juuken.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

There was a burst of smoke and when it cleared the sentinels of Kiri watched as Naruto came into view.

"Hokage-sama," one of them said and bowed respectfully to the foreign leader.

Naruto nodded in response.

"Please follow me," the guard said. The Mizukage and the others are awaiting your arrival.

Naruto said nothing as they lad him back to the main building of the village. His mind was going on overdrive.

He already knew what he was going to say, he knew how he was going to explain what happened to him.

Naruto planned on telling the other four everything. Well, mostly everything. How he was caught, what he heard, the only thing he would keep to himself were the circumstances of his escape.

They needed to prepare after all. The others could not be as lax as he was.

Authors note: well I'm going to leave it at that for now. hope you all liked, please review.

I'm not sure when next will be out, as it will have a massive fight and I am overly critical of my fight scenes, but I will try to write as soon as possible.


	18. Chapter 18

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Eighteen

"Naruto, what the hell happened?"

Said man looked to see a relieved Shikamaru greeting him, he flashed a weary smile, "gomen, got held up…"

Naruto had just been led to the room his group was waiting in at the Mizukage's main building. He looked around to see a grinning Kiba and the stoic figures of Neji and Shino.

"Got held up?" Shikamaru began incredulously and Naruto spoke over him.

"So, what has been happening here?"

Shikamaru's eyebrow was raised for a moment before he spoke, "you did not miss anything yet, the meeting hasn't happened yet."

"Well that's good."

Shikamaru was growing impatient with the banter, "but onto more important things. Is it true what Kawazu said? Did someone actually manage to redirect you in that way?"

Naruto considered his friend for a moment, and then he nodded.

"Damn, someone actually figured it out?" Kiba muttered.

"Yeah, but I can tell you that they won't catch me off guard that way again," Naruto said.

Shikamaru was silent for a moment before he asked, "So what will you tell the others? Though the meeting is not started, they are wondering where you went. It might be best to find a way to tell them without telling them that someone figured out a weakness in that Jutsu, and at the same time not upsetting them for leaving for so long. I think that you should…"

"I already got it covered, Shikamaru," Naruto said simply. "Trust me I had plenty of time to think about it."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Kawazu eyed the man that stood opposite him, that stance seemed to be a cross between the Juken and Goken.

His opponent's hands were fisted and held in a ready position close to the chest. He seemed loose and relaxed as he simply stared at Kawazu.

The mans left leg was positioned slightly before the right; he would lead off with that one.

Kawazu had to rid himself of this man. Unfortunately whichever way this fight goes, he would not be following that carriage that had already disappeared into the swirling sands.

He could win, and they would not be easy to find and track as the travelers will continue to be cautious until their partner came back. And a henge would be out of the question, any decent ninja would be able to detect the transformation rather quickly.

So Kawazu was left with two choices, win this fight but return home empty handed or lose…

This man seemed to have combined the two very different styles very well. Kawazu could feel the chakra burning off the mans fists. He didn't what to find out the damage that could be done by attacking with raw physical power and disrupting the chakra of ones opponent at the same time.

It happened in the blink of an eye, his opponent seemed to vanish and reappear directly behind Kawazu. He marveled at the speed, it seemed similar to Lee's. As it was Kawazu just managed to deflect the blow and left away form the attacker.

When he settled into place, he turned in time to see the other man vanish again. Only to appear at his side and this time, the man's fist barely clipped Kawazu's shoulder.

He felt his arm start to go numb; this was similar to Juuken yet not as precise. Still, this man was not giving him much of a chance to set up a counter-attack.

Kawazu dropped to the ground, planting his slightly numb arm into the sand he swept both legs across the dirt only to have the other jump them like a children's obstacle.

Kawazu pushed himself from the ground and looked up at the still air-born man. His opponents back was to him and even so seemed as if he knew Kawazu was approaching.

Kawazu pulled a couple of shuriken from his hip pouch, he launched them at his mans back and formed a couple of hand signs. The two multiplied into hundreds, all careening at an almost impossible speed at the other mans back.

Then what he was suspecting, but did want to see, happened. Kawazu's opponent rotated in mid air and chakra began to be pumped from everywhere on his body. He was encased in a perfect sphere, the shuriken all deflected harmlessly and most of which vanished into many small bursts of smoke.

The smoke followed the chakra sphere down to the ground, where it hit and sank part way into the yielding, shifting sand.

When the smoke cleared, Kawazu was met with a very familiar stance but with a slight difference.

The mans right side was facing him, his arms were held aloft his right arm pointed at an angle to the ground and his left held up to the sky. His legs were spread with a slight bend at the knees. Kawazu looked to his hands, the two main fingers were not spread instead all were curled tightly into a fist, the entire fist glowed threateningly.

The man suddenly launched himself at Kawazu, and at the speed he was going at all Kawazu had time for was to measure the starting distance from the two of them.

"Well, fuck."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

"My apologies for my absence," Naruto said formally, bowing to the other four Kages. They responded in turn before settling around the large, circular table in the Mizukage's conference room.

The room itself was circular, and the walls were painted with great detail like the surrounding seas.

Sitting in this room, painted in this way and with no corners, gave the impression of being on a small island in the middle of vast, Open Ocean.

If the room was not secure, and sound proof, one could almost hear the roar and crashing of the waves the were taking place outside.

Seated slightly behind and to the right of each of the five sat their respective advisors.

Shikamaru sat a short distance from Kankuro, who was, of course, behind his brother.

The Mizukage spoke first, starting the discussion. "I have informed you all of the reasons that I invited you here, I believe that you have been experiencing similar situations and pray that you were luckier that my villages loss."

Everyone bowed their head respectfully at the loss of one of the seven swordsmen of the mist.

The Raikage spoke up. She was a strong, fierce-looking woman. Despite her relatively recent induction to the post, she normally spoke with such strength and authority that her voice was compared to having the power of lightning itself.

It did not take a genius to tell that she was stressed. She had seen battle; she had risked her life on many occasions. Her exploits were nearing legendary status.

But she had never led an entire village in wartime.

"We have not lost or been attacked in the circumstances that you have faced, how can you even be sure that my village will be?"

Though her voice was level, the others could tell she spoke in a manner of desperation. Clutching at straws and holding a blind hope that, whatever was happening, would pass her village by.

"I wouldn't trust to hope, Raikage-sama," Gaara said flatly.

"What do you mean?"

"Whoever is doing this attacked others, as you all know," Gaara continued. "The first that The Hokage and I have heard of it was when his son's team and my niece's team were attacked, with direct focus on the two of them."

Naruto continued, "Gaara is right. We had thought that they were targeting one of three things, either relations of a Kage, those with a kekkai-genkei or relations of a Jinchuriki. My son and his team mate being all three."

"But that is now, no longer the case," the Tsuchikage said. "The Kiri swordsman was none of these."

"Exactly," Naruto said nodding his head. "And based on that, I think that they are targeting ninja all together, and especially Kage's and their relatives."

"Nearly everyone's eyes widened, with the exception of Shikamaru's. His narrowed in the hope that Naruto wasn't going to say too much.

"How do you mean?" asked the Mizukage.

Naruto spoke slowly, "I believe that this group is attempting high profile assassinations, in the hope that people will fear what is happening. They are terrorists, they are trying to undermine the stability of our villages to leave us in ruins and wipe out the existence of ninja altogether."

"That is a very interesting theory, Hokage-sama," the Tsuchikage said, a bit derisively.

Naruto overlooked the tone, and continued on as though not interrupted. "I am also certain that there will be attempts on all of your lives."

The rest, including Gaara, stiffened.

The Tsuchikage spoke with a dangerous, icy voice and clenched teeth. "Just what makes you say that, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto sat strait backed and unyielding, "because they just tried it on me."

All of their eyes widened once again, and Naruto heard Shikamaru let out an almost inaudible moan of worry.

"There was a reason that I was not here, they managed to capture me, and held me for several days. They had the intention of allowing their leader to come and kill me."

"I beg your pardon, but how did they manage to capture you?" the Mizukage asked. "You were here before any of the others; you left using the Hiraishin to your village and then didn't come back until now."

"They figured out the seal of the Hiraishin, and laid a trap for me. From what my spymaster said, they encompassed my entire village with a seal, so that when I would cross it, using the Hiraishin, I would be redirected to a little shack in the middle of Suna's desert," Naruto said calmly.

Gaara's head snapped to Naruto, the red-head was open mouthed in shock from the news.

"That is impossible," the Tsuchikage said.

"What do you mean?"

The other paused, "meaning no offence, but the seal on the Hiraishin is impossible to figure out. I am assuming that you suggest they must have used one of yours or your fathers discarded Kunai since they would not have had access to the original notes?"

"Yes," Naruto said simply.

"My predecessors had tried that very thing," the Tsuchikage said. "During the war, they tried that same strategy on your father and were never successful."

"Did they give up after my father died, seeing it was pointless?"

The Tsuchikage said nothing.

"I thought as much, well it happened. And once I was there, I was disoriented from the unexpected detour; I was careless I admit that. I never thought that anyone would figure out the seal, it took me years to do so and it was already tailored to my family's blood," Naruto said. "They used my shock to subdue me quickly, tie me to a chair, place chakra suppressing seals on me and hold me there."

He paused a moment the others said nothing, "It was pure luck that I survived, I managed to get out of my binds, the guard died, I destroyed the seal they used and the building…there is nothing left."

"You killed him? Why?" asked Gaara. "We could have gotten information out of him."

Naruto shrugged, "I was defending myself, and I overestimated his strength. I only meant to subdue him, but ended up finishing him. As it is, managed to get a name of their leader."

"Really?"

"They call him Kengen-sama."

"Why are you telling us this?" the Raikage asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Why tell us that they found, and exploited a weakness in that Jutsu?"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow, "I thought it was obvious. If they went to this much trouble and found a way to use my own Jutsu against me, then you can be assured that they have a plan for the rest of you."

They stayed silent as they processed this bit of news.

"I plan to rework the seal anyhow; this same trick won't work on me twice."

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Kawazu was in trouble, he knew it. The white-haired sage lay panting yet oddly without any pain in the hot desert sand.

He could feel nothing, his entire body was numb and he couldn't twitch a pinky if his life depended on it.

He was right in thinking his attacker would not allow him to draw on the Sage Chakra, the ferocity and speed that he was attacked with decimated his chakra points and he felt further damage to his insides due to the closed fisted style of Juuken this man had used.

An explosive cough erupted from Kawazu's mouth sending blood and bile issuing out to stain the sand.

He knew that he had massive internal damage, but thankfully could not feel any of it. If he had he most likely would have blacked out from the pain.

He watched from his one, half-open eye the man was still standing but panting heavily. He favored his left side, and Kawazu knew that it was from the cracked rib and the slightly injured leg that he was sure he had given the man.

Still one cracked rib and some other non life threatening cuts and hits compared to Kawazu's broken and bloodied body…he was soundly beaten and now sorely wished he had gone all out for the start.

He could not bring out the needed chakra now to summon the two elders and used his sage abilities. He was drained, immobilized, and soon would be dead.

He couldn't even use enough chakra to detonate the mass of explosive tags he had on his person when his opponent got close enough, taking them both out.

Kawazu let his eye close, rather than watch the man limp slowly toward him. He really did not feel the need to watch the slow, steady march of death coming nearer.

A sudden sound of a muffled explosion cause is eye to snap open.

Now sitting on the ground between the two men was Gamatou. The massive toad took a split second to assess the situation before his tongue shot from his mouth, aimed directly at the approaching assailant.

He tried to dodge, but his injuries prevented the quick movement required to do so. The toads tongue wrapped around the man's injured leg; he was raised to the air, and brought down with such speed and force he was driven deep into the sand. All the time he did not cry out, but then it may have been due to all the air being pushed form his lungs.

"Do…don…"

Gamatou turned his head to look back at Kawazu, he eye softened from the fury that was there a moment ago. The ridge of his eye rose in question.

Kawazu gasped out the only words he could, "don't…don't kill…need him…a…live."

The toad nodded once and his tongue began to snake and coil around the other man, Kawazu watched as pressure was applied, constricting the man that he had lost to.

The attacker stopped struggling and his body went limp, Gamatou quickly released the man and he fell in a heap to the desert floor.

Kawazu was pleased to see that the man's chest was still moving.

His world went black.

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"What the hell were you thinking Naruto?"

They were back in the private room the Mizukage had set up for the Konoha guests. Neji, Shino and Kiba sat in silence as Shikamaru whispered angrily at the unconcerned blonde man.

"What do you mean?" Naruto replied innocently.

"I mean telling them all that there was a weakness in your Hiraishin and that you were captured with it," Shikamaru answered in an exasperated voice. "I had told you that it might be best that they didn't know about that little piece of information."

"I did what I had to do, you heard the Tsuchikage," Naruto said, "He was taking my warning as a threat."

"Only because you worded it in that way," Shikamaru said. "Honestly, did you deliberately try to let them know?"

"Yes."

All eyes widened at that, and Shikamaru made to speak again.

Naruto cut him off, "don't start with me," he said with a little bit of an edge to his voice. "I did what I had to do to hold more trust between us and let them know of what will be coming their way. They have to be ready, so just drop it. It is too late to take it back, besides isn't it too 'troublesome' to worry about what has already happened?" Naruto asked with a grin.

Shikamaru sighed and sank into a chair rubbing at his temples, "so what's the plan now?"

"Well, we have a name now," Naruto said. "I will send Kawazu out to question all of his contacts spread out across the elemental countries. Se if the name 'the decedents' or 'Kengen-sama' mean anything to any of them."

There was a burst of smoke in the room which drew the attention of the five men sitting there. When it cleared, Gamatachi was sitting on the table.

"Gamatachi? What are you doing here?" Naruto asked simply.

"Hey boss, Tou-san sent me." the little toad did not look a excited as he normally did when he got to visit this world. "I have some bad news."

Authors note: sorry for the cliffy, felt like the right place to end this one.

Also sorry if the fight scene isn't all that great and a bit rushed, I am overly critical of my fight sequences and as such don't normally write them, and that in turn does not make them any better.

Maybe i should pratice them.

And there is one last thing, major disappointment with my last chapter…I mean three reviews? (Thanks to those who did)

And I was very pleased with that one. I had said it before, I don't want to be one of the guys that say 'I want X amount of reviews before I post another chapter.' But I am seriously considering stopping this story, if people don't seem interested then I have to say I am a lazy guy.

I like this story, I do, and I don't want to give up on it. But a major point of these fanfics is seeing what others think. So please review, constructive criticism, praise (always good) or outright flames. I would like to hear from you.


	19. Chapter 19

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Nineteen

Senshin Handou stood strait-backed and proud. He was tall and powerfully built, wearing a simple black robe due as opposed to his normal gear, due to the current situation. He had close-cropped black hair and had two deep scars running parallel diagonally across his face.

His head was bowed and his dark eyes were closed, his mouth was drawn into an unemotional line.

His hands were folded around the hilts of the twin swords of the Rai Roga, the twin lightning pikes that resembled dragon fangs, which were held aloft.

Aside from himself, five others stood in a circle each with a blade that was as legendary as his own.

Suigetsu Hōzuki stood next to him holding the Executioner's Blade. Though he did not look it he is physically the most powerful of the group, and that strength is needed to wield the immense sword.

Suigetsu had returned to the mist village after having been held captive by Orochimaru. After assisting in the defeat of the Akatsuki he continued on in his quest to claim the swords for himself.

He had found and collected three, the Executioner's Blade, Samehada and Rai Roga.

After those three he was faced with the choice of whether to take the others for himself and be hunted for the rest of his life, or another option.

And so he took the three swords back, and offered them to the Mizukage in the hopes that he would be allowed to keep one and stay on as one of the seven.

It took a while but Suigetsu eventually proved himself and gained enough trust to be allowed.

Kinshou Mesuinu stood as tall as he could; he was still the smallest of the group. But aside from the other swordsmen, no one, ever, reminded him of it. If it was one of the other six he complained about it, but otherwise took any remarks in stride.

Warai Youji was the first female swordsman…swordswoman to ever be inducted into the seven. She made quite a name for herself from within the group and out. There have been other female nominations, but she was the only one to ever gain enough respect to finally break into the ranks.

Though she still found it impossible to get the others over to a certain way of thinking, well the phrase 'swords-people' just did not roll off the tongue.

Hayai Toki and Sugoi Tezema rounded out the group that was left.

The six of them stood at attention in this manner for a full day, in honor of their fallen comrade. It was the respect due to one of the seven when they fell.

They were surrounding the body of Tsuiraku Shuuha, next to whom lay the Samehada.

Their ceremony was almost over, soon they would have to commit the body to the seas and find a replacement for their partner, difficult though that task would be, and plan retaliation against the people who took one of their own.

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Sasuke was not sure how he was able to put up with it; he sat and watched his wife chatting with Hinata and Tsunade, all of them sipping on tea.

He wasn't sure how to deal with this nervousness; everyone around him was calm and had no idea of what had happened. Konohamaru had, wisely, opted to keep the situation quiet until Naruto returned and decided what was to be said or not.

But still, his mind was racing. They were getting bold, to think that who ever these people were, they had no problem abducting a Kage…just what are they after?

Who was being targeted? Was his family safe? He looked over to see Aki running, squealing from little Jiraiya. It was weird, seeing a mini Naruto chasing after his daughter, who was her mother with black hair.

Sasuke almost cracked a smile at the sight, in his mind seeing the boy with markings on his cheeks and the girl with bright-pink hair.

No, no one was going to hurt her…no one was going to hurt either of his girls. He had a family again, and he was damned if he was going to let anyone touch them.

He felt a weight hit him in the chest, Aki had launched her self at him and latched on to his shirt, whimpering. "Tou-san, help me…"

He looked down with slightly narrowed eyes at the little blonde boy, who stopped dead in his tracks.

"Jiraiya, don't scare her," came the stern voice of the boys mother, which caused him to look back and smile guiltily at Hinata.

"Gomen, Kaa-san," he muttered instantly cowed.

Aki turned her head from her father's chest and grinned at the boy, following it up with sticking her tongue out at him.

"Aki-chan, don't tease him," came the sterner voice of Sakura.

Before she could react, there was a knock at the door.

Sakura made to get up, but Sasuke placed Aki back on the ground and stood up, "I'll get it Sakura. You three can relax."

He walked out of the room and to the door; opening it he was met with a hospital messenger.

"Pardon me for disturbing you, Uchiha-sama," the messenger bowed. "There is an emergency, and your wife is required at the hospital. And you are needed at Anbu HQ."

His voice must have carried, because Sakura soon came into view in the hall, followed closely by Tsunade with Hinata and the children bringing up the rear.

"What kind of emergency?" Tsunade asked.

The messenger bowed deeply to the former Hokage and spoke, "Sarutobi Konohamaru had not disclosed any specifics, I simply know there is a severely in need of the most skilled medical treatment." He turned to Sasuke, "and there is also a prisoner."

Sasuke felt a twinge of worry, but said nothing simply nodded.

Sakura started put on a pair of shoes silently, and headed out the door. Duty calls.

Tsunade was right behind her, "Not that I doubt your ability, but it sounds serious and I need something to do, been sitting idle for too long."

Her voice vanished as they made their way to the hospital.

The messenger had gone too.

Sasuke looked down to see Aki latched onto his leg, her eyes wide as she tried her hardest to guilt her father. "Do you have to go to, tou-san?"

He ruffled her hair, a forced smile on his face, "sorry Aki, I have to work."

The little girl pouted, extremely disappointed, she knew know who would have to watch her. She loved auntie Hinata, but Jiraiya would be there too.

'Ewww.'

Sasuke looked up to Hinata, "I hate to ask, can you keep an eye on her Hinata?"

"Of course," Hinata replied. She eyed him concerned, "you seem nervous Sasuke, do you know what is going on?"

Sasuke shrugged, unconcerned, "no, just don't really feel like working, I'll come pick Aki up later." With that he strode from the house.

'He was definitely nervous about something,' Hinata thought as she gathered up her bag and led the kids out of the house. She could see that plainly on his face, he had concerns as to what had happened.

She didn't really need her Byakugan to read her husband's best friend, and didn't use it to see if he was lying, but Uchiha Sasuke was not as stoic and emotionless as he thinks he is.

Putting it from her mind for now, she spoke to the kids. "Aki, your father will get you later, you can come over." It was improper for her to stay here with out the homeowners to play host.

The little blonde boy cheered, "Alright, Aki-chan, I can show you my new pet frog."

Aki began to bawl; she knew it…what had she done to deserve this?

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He was fading fast, unconscious and pale, Kawazu was close to death.

Tsunade and Sakura work feverishly on him, but he seemed too far gone.

One of the medics, a Hyuuga, had told them that his entire chakra network had been damaged, mostly beyond repair. If they somehow managed to save him, it would still be too much to hope that he would be able to draw on his chakra.

And that assessment seemed to be accurate, even if the could repair the damage to his major organs, he really would no longer be able to live as a shinobi.

But they just didn't have the time to heal it all, to allow him to live even as a civilian seemed impossible, his heart was weak and his breathing slowing.

Tsunade was locked into the task at hand, she barely noticed that Sakura had stopped working, and the long steady tone of the heart monitor meant nothing to her.

She kept working, doing what she could, not listening to the voices that must have been talking to her.

Tsunade owed it to him, she was not going to let Jiraiya's son die, despite what Sakura was saying…she ignored that anyway.

She wasn't going to let it happen again this time.

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Sasuke followed an Anbu making his way to the interrogation room, where there was supposedly a prisoner being held with connection to this mysterious group.

There was a large figure sitting on the floor right out side of the room. It wasn't human, and as he got closer Sasuke recognized it as Gamatou.

The large toad nodded to Sasuke as he approached, "Sasuke-san," he said in greeting.

Sasuke responded in kind, "do you know what is going on here?"

"Yes," the toad seemed a bit subdued. "I helped in capturing a prisoner, but Kawazu…" he trailed off.

"Is he alright?"

"I don't know," Gamatou said quietly. "I brought him back but he was injured, severely. And I managed to subdue the enemy he was fighting and brought him here as he requested."

"And Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto is fine; I brought him to Kiri myself."

"Is there anything else that you can tell me before I pay our 'guest' a visit?" Sasuke questioned. "Any reason that you are still here? Don't you want to return home?"

Gamatou shrugged, "I don't really want to go back yet, rather not go back without knowing what happened. The boss, Gamakichi, will be asking difficult questions."

Sasuke nodded, "well stay here as long as you can, I'll be sure to let you know what I find."

"There are others in there, Sai-san and Ibiki-san, though I'm unsure how successful they have been."

Sasuke's eyebrow lifted questioningly, 'why would Sai be in there?' Walking past the toad he opened the door, "I'll talk to you in a while."

Just as he was told, Sasuke was met with Sai and Ibiki.

The two were talking and stopped when the door opened. The older man turned to Sasuke, "I'm afraid even you won't be of much help right now."

Sai nodded his agreement, the usual smile gone from his face.

"Why did this prisoner also kill himself?"

Ibiki shook his head, "no, in fact he did not even have a false, poison filled tooth…there is something else it is why I called Sai here."

Sasuke cocked his head questioningly at the other man in the room.

Sai looked uncomfortable, "there is a seal, similar to the one used in the…in the old root."

And Sasuke understood, he was familiar with that seal. Placed on the tongue it prevented the disclosure of any information that was deemed secret. And Sai did not look happy having to bring up old trade secrets.

"So we can't get him to physically speak, then why not call Inoichi?" Sasuke asked.

Ibiki shook his head, "that is were the similarity ends, this seal goes even further. We will not be able to access the mind by force, and given that this is a Hyuuga will make using chakra based interrogation all the more difficult."

"Wait, a Hyuuga?"

"Yes, this prisoner is Hyuuga Hei, he was declared KIA over 20 years ago." Ibiki said. "I checked the old records and matched him, he was last seen presumable dying in an explosion, though no body was ever recovered."

"So he staged his own death and ran…" Sasuke said dully.

"I have already made a recommendation to Konohamaru to have all the old records checked, and to compile a list of every Missing Nin, and those listed KIA but having had no body recovered." Ibiki said.

"Gamatou," Sasuke said quietly, "the toad sitting outside. We could have him go to Naruto, who is with the other Kage's, and request they all do the same."

Ibiki nodded his approval, "that is a good idea."

"There is one thing I am curious about," Sasuke said mostly to himself. "Why the seal, why did this one not have the suicide capsule?"

Ibiki actually grinned at this, "Because I am certain that we captured one of the higher ranking people in this group, 5th from the top actually. I think that such a high ranking member would be too valuable to just waste, he must know things that are extremely important. So they sealed him so that he could not disclose any of it, and then also giving him the time to figure out an escape."

"Interesting, you may be right," Sasuke said. "But what makes you say the 5th?"

"The last one had an ornately designed number 26 tattooed on his shoulder, similar to the Anbu way."

Sasuke looked over at the prisoner, and sure enough the exposed shoulder did have the number five clearly there.

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Sakura watched her old teacher work as best she could, her vision blurred by the tears.

The older woman refused to stop, she kept working and 30 minutes had passed since his heart had stopped.

Sakura had never seen Tsunade like this, she tried to stop her, tried to pull her away from him.

And she had to dodge as Tsunade swung at her. Sakura was shocked when Tsunade took a swing at her, she said nothing when she did it, but to look in her eyes told Sakura that she would not give this up.

There was nothing but clarity and focus in her eyes.

The pink haired woman turned away and left the room, to watch the pointless struggle from the other side of the glass.

She was still working and repairing the damaged organs, for all the good it did.

Sakura didn't want it to happen anymore then Tsunade did. Kawazu was a close friend and they had worked together on numerous occasions. She didn't want to admit it, but it was too late.

Sakura first thought that Tsunade had lost it, something in her must have snapped. Be the look in her eyes said that she truly believed that she could save him. Sakura didn't know which thought was scarier, her friend and mentor snapping like this, or that she believed that it would work.

Tsunade stopped and walked to the door, wiping her brow as she went. "I have done almost everything that I needed to do; there is one last thing I need to finish."

On the other side of the glass divider Sakura heard her, "what do you mean?"

Reaching the door Tsunade quickly locked it and flashed through some hand signs, placing her hand on the door an intricate pattern spread across the door, the wall and the glass.

Sakura recognized it; this seal would not allow any to enter the room until it was dispelled. It was similar to the ones used in the prisons for the ninja prisoners. Except that this was made using chakra and the once in the prisons were engraved into the walls. That was done so that id wouldn't dispel when the user died.

But why would Tsunade use that?

"I am sorry, but I have to do this," Tsunade said.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked.

"You were one of my favorite students, you and Shizune; I saw the two of you like daughters."

Tsunade turned around and walked back to Kawazu, she looked over her shoulder and smiled, "Please tell her and the Gaki good bye for as well."

Sakura's eyes grew wide and she began to pound her fist on glass, there was no give. "Tsunade, what are you doing?"

There was no answer, Tsunade's back was to her and from Sakura's point of view, she was back lit with a blue glow. This feeling seemed very familiar to Sakura, but she refused to accept that is what Tsunade was actually doing.

She continued to slam her fists on the glass, Tsunade made no indication that she heard any of it.

Since she had heard of that the old hag Chiyo had done for Gaara, Tsunade had worked on recreating that Jutsu. She could never have tested it, but is almost certain that she had it down.

'So much for not dying in a hospital,' she silently mused.

Tsunade glanced at the face of the man that lay before her, and she could almost see two red lines running down his face. "Jiraiya, you got to go in the way you always imagined for your self. I never wanted to go at all," she chuckled dryly to herself. "Guess that's why I wanted to be young forever…I don't know, guess I'm rambling aren't I? I'll guess see you soon, Dan, Nawaki and the old man…I hope."

The image faded from her eyes, and her vision was starting to grow dark. It felt like she was drifting to sleep, she felt comfortable…'at least I too can go in my own way.'

Authors note: ok here is another chapter, hope you enjoyed. Please review.

There won't be another for at least a few weeks. I am going to Comicon 2009 in San Diego in a week, will be on vacation for about two.

See you all later.

**Warning spoiler, do not read the following if you don't want the manga ruined.**

**Danzo had the sharingan? Really? Did they really just do that? **

**You know for a Kekkei-genkei from an almost extinct clan, the Sharingan keep popping up. **

**I'm sorry but first, Kakashi has it, and that's cool it was a gift from a dying friend. **

**Sasuke and itachi were always around so expected from them**

**Then along comes tobi…who turns out to be an immortal who was the original fonder of the Uchiha, ok…I'll buy it, kinda pushing it but I'm fine.**

**Now Danzo-teme? **

**What the hell is going on here?**

**Whatever just felt like venting.**

**Oh and for the cannon, stop dragging it out. It has been twenty issues since the confession, and I know that Naruto has stuff going on right now but I want to see the conversation with him and Hinata eventually.**

**I'm just saying.**


	20. Chapter 20

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Twenty

It was a gloomy day, horribly overcast yet the rain was not coming.

That seemed to be a perfect analogy to how Naruto was feeling, there was turmoil inside him. A storm was brewing within and without, but the 'rain' was not coming. Not yet anyway.

It was not the homecoming that he was looking forward to. He had been held prisoner for several days, survived an assassination attempt, and survived a long and difficult trek through the desert with no food and a half filled canteen.

Now he had to bury Oba-chan…and there was still much to do.

Hinata stood beside him, her eyes had a slight shimmer to them. His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her closer; she looked up with worry at his mask-like face. And her tears began to fall.

He could tell she was worried about him, worried that he would try to lock this down inside him. But he could still not bring himself to do it. It just didn't feel real.

His children stood near them, all three doing nothing to hide the grief, all three wearing their hearts on their sleeves like he used to.

He looked over to see Sakura with tears streaming down her face, her head tilted and resting on Sasuke's shoulder.

She was taking this really hard, but then she was the one who watched Tsunade, her teacher and second mother figure, die.

Shizune was not in a much better state, Kurenai stood beside her friend with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

OoOoO

'Why did she have to do it?'

He was sore and tired. The people from the hospital tried to get him to use a wheelchair to attend the service, as he was still recovering, but he wasn't hearing any of that.

He made sure that he would show the proper respect for the woman, and if he could stand and walk then it would not be proper to just sit there.

Kawazu was not around to see the service for his father, he didn't even know about it until rumors reached the little village he grew up in, months after it had happened.

He had to watch his mother grow old and tired before her time. Despite Jiraiya being fifteen years her senior, she truly loved the old man, and she shut down completely after Kawazu was old enough to care for himself.

His mother was one of the strongest women he had ever known, not a Konoichi herself but still gave off a feeling of safety and strength.

It was almost impossible for him to see her frail, thin body laying there and then lowered into the ground.

She gave her life for him, though he knew that she wanted to give up, she held on until that little voice must have told her it was ok to let go.

And now the other important woman from his father's life had sacrificed her life for him, for all the good that it did.

Especially when he thought about the news he got from the doctors.

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"I'm sorry, but what you are asking is a massive undertaking." The doctor was nervous and sweaty, young too. The guy was barely out of the medical training and now had to tell someone the first bad news that he had in his still starting career.

"What do you mean exactly?" Kawazu said bluntly yet wearily.

The young man sighed slightly, "the damage to your chakra system is extensive…to be perfectly honest what Lady Tsunade did was nothing short of a miracle. She repaired everything that was essential. Everything that was supporting your organs is in working order; unfortunately it was not enough to allow you to draw on it for any jutsu…of any kind."

"So what you are saying is…as of now I am just another villager," Kawazu said slowly.

The doctor nodded.

Kawazu closed his eyes and rubbed at them with his thumb and index fingers, "I see." With out looking up, "Can anything be done, anything at all?"

The doctor chewed on his lower lip for a moment, "possibly," he allowed.

Kawazu's head snapped up.

The doctor continued, "You have to understand it would not be quickly done. The safest way it to stagger the procedures and allow a time of healing between each one. Unfortunately…" the doctor trailed off.

Kawazu kept looking at him, staying silent.

"Unfortunately, the only, safest way would still carry a risk of complications. And it may take a few years before it produced any results."

"What kind of complications?" Kawazu asked.

"We would be working on sensitive pathways, one mistake and we could shut down all the working ones." The young medic spoke very quietly and quickly as though it would make it easier to take.

Kawazu allowed himself a wry smile, "shut down the working ones? You mean the ones that are supporting my organs?"

"Yes," the doctor said. "Every one of the many procedures that would be required is possibly life threatening."

OoOoO

He looked over to his right, Hanabi stood there with an attempted stoic look locked onto her face. That look was ruined by the emotion ruling her eyes.

Tsunade and Hanabi were not too close, but her niece and nephews saw the older woman as family, and therefore so did she.

She was thankful that Tsunade gave Kawazu back to her. She placed her hand on her abdomen and quickly took it away, she had yet to tell him and now she wasn't sure how too.

It had to be soon; otherwise it would quickly become apparent.

She had wondered how the clan would take it. It was true that they had been together for years now, but there has not been any talk of marriage…on any level.

It was an unspoken agreement between the two of them, and she thought she was fine with it. But perhaps she did not hide her disappointment well enough, all these years and nothing? And her cousin, Hana, seemed to harbor some form of anger at Kawazu.

Hanabi tended to ignore that, but she felt like her cousin was upset on her behalf.

But that was the least of her worries. There was an odd look in Kawazu's eyes, one that she had never seen when he looked at her. Hanabi hoped that it was his grieving, she felt concerned that it was a look of anger.

She prayed that it wasn't, hopefully her fears would be unfounded and Kawazu would not hold his recent injuries against the Hyuuga and more specifically, herself.

OoOoO

People were now coming forward to lay a single white flower before the picture of the blonde woman.

The sky opened up a little and allowed its own tears to fall, and Naruto felt free to do so himself.

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A week had passed. Naruto sat in his office at his desk, supporting his head with the palms of his hands at either temple. Before him lay corresponds from the other Kages, all of which offered their condolences, and well wishes for the loss of the Godmiane.

He had told his family and closest confidants what had happened to him on his trip.

Hinata took it pretty hard, her worry and despair at what had happened in turn caused him to worry about her health and the health of the baby.

It took a while for her to calm down, especially after she found out what he would have to do now.

He would not tell the rest of the village about his experience that previous week. It seemed the best way from causing a panic, the village needed to have strong leadership; it needed it faith in store for what was coming.

OoOoO

"Sorry, but I am not the one needed for this job."

Naruto started at the response, it was not what he had expected. "According to Sasuke, you did a very good job standing in." He surveyed the man sitting across his deck from him, "you seem to be fully capable to be my successor, most of the time you rarely needed any direction and the decisions you made were on the level of any of the past Hokage's."

Konohamaru rubbed his chin through his beard; he then massaged his temples with a wry smile on his face. "If you had asked this just last year I'd have jumped at the chance," he sighed.

"Then why not?"

"Alright, I did fine when it was assigning missions, or approving fund usage, or even keeping quiet what happened to you." Konohamaru shrugged, "and I understand you have to do this. But as much as I have dreamed of it, the current situation forces me to admit that I am not ready to lead permanently."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked simply.

"There is a war coming, what we need is someone who can guide us through this…someone who is not just physically strong but a damn good general." Konohamaru spoke quietly, "we need someone who can consider all the options, contemplate every situation and see all the potential outcomes."

Naruto nodded, "that's true," he admitted.

The other man chuckled, "let's face it, guys like you and me, we would come at the problem will all the finesse of charging rhino."

"Hey," Naruto's indigent outburst sounded.

"You and I both know it's true, and that is why I, sadly, have to turn it down." He got up to leave, "thanks for the offer, though."

Naruto nodded, "but to be fair, that admission made you sound like a Kage…the old man would have been proud."

Konohamaru turned back just as he reached the door to the office, he offered a slight grin. "Thanks boss," he stopped and considered something, "I guess all I have to do is hope you find someone who is able to do the job, but wont mind in the slightest to step down quickly so I can get a shot at it…after I learn a bit more," he laughed as he closed the door behind him.

OoOoO

"No, hell no."

Naruto stared blankly at the man in his office, "What do you mean no?"

"I would think that it is pretty obvious what I mean when I said no, that is way to troublesome." Shikamaru deadpanned.

"But you would be the best choice, you're intelligent and consider every option." Naruto insisted.

"As far as that goes I will continue on as an advisor for your successor," Shikamaru sighed. "But this was never my dream, I only ever wanted to be an average ninja who married a normal woman not ugly or too pretty and die of old age before my wife in my sleep."

Naruto smirked, "I also seem to recall you wanted a daughter then a son and for you to retire after your daughter got married and son became a ninja. Oh and Temari is not just an average woman…"

Shikamaru glared at him, "all the more reason I wont take the job. I had no choice as to my children, though I do love them and no cant see any other way it could have been, but I will not give up on my dream completely. And so my answer will have to be no."

"There is no convincing you is there?"

Shikamaru shook his head, "look you have to do this, I get that, but the most that I can do is continue on as the new Hokage's advisor.

After he left Naruto let out a defeated sigh, "0 for 2."

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

Several days later Naruto had called the council together. After his meetings with Konohamaru and Shikamaru he gave it a lot of thought and though it took a bit of convincing he had a successor to suggest to the others.

He'd also have to announce his intention to relinquish his position…and wondered how that would go over.

When he told Hinata of his intentions, it did not go over too well.

**Flashback**

"What do you mean you have to do this?"

Naruto sighed and shook his head; his wife was being unusually difficult.

"I told you Hinata, I am the only one who can," he tried to explain.

"Don't give me that," she said with a slight glare that Naruto had never expected to see on her. "Anyone can be trained to do this job, why does it have to be you?"

"Because I already am trained for it, I was supposed to be the one after Jiraiya," Naruto patiently explained. "Not to mention that I am the one contracted with the toads, it would take too long find a suitable candidate and pass on the knowledge."

"You and I both know that being a sage is not a requirement," Hinata said with an almost pleading voice. "What happened to Jiraiya-sama and to Kawazu…I don't want to lose you."

"Hinata-chan I run that risk as a normal shinobi as much as I would as a spy master and sage," Naruto said taking her hand and peering into her eyes. "The point is that it is necessary, I have to do this to protect the village, you, the kids." He finished placing a hand on her abdomen.

She swallowed and nodded, "but I still don't like to see you placing yourself into danger like that." She allowed herself a slight smile, "I had gotten used to you not going on missions like this."

"I know," he said and pulled her into an embrace. "But times have to change, life keeps moving on, it's like Kakashi-sensei says, the next generation surpasses the last. It is just how things have to be."

**Flashback End **

"Thank you all for coming," Naruto said as he took his seat at the head of the conference table.

The elders and clan heads that comprised the council all nodded in acknowledgement and took their seats as well.

"I have called you all here to discuss an important decision that will need to be made," Naruto said. "I have received news that Kawazu, due to his recent injuries, has lost his ability to draw on chakra. As such will be un able to continue on as the spy master for our village."

There was quiet murmuring at this and Hyuuga Hiashi spoke, "Hokage-sama, is this really a matter for the council? I would think that choosing the spymaster and even successor to the toad contract is between yourself and Kawazu-san." His age was apparent, hair was graying and his face more lined, but he still held himself with the proper dignity he always had.

"Hiashi-san is right," Inuzuka Hana said. "Not to mention that the village is still grieving at the loss of Lady Tsunade, we really did not need to be consulted for this."

Naruto shook his head, "that's true, choosing the next one is my decision, which I have made. But it is because of that choice that I have called you here to vote on another topic."

"And what might that be?" Aburame Shibi spoke quietly.

Naruto steeled himself, "I am the one who will continue on that job," he continued to speak over the sudden talk that had broken out and the others soon fell silent. "Do not try to convince me otherwise, the choice is made."

They all stared at him, "I am the only one who was trained to do this job, not to mention that I am the only one who is contracted with the toads and the role of sage falls to me. The toads need a traveling spy as much as this village does. Since time is off the essence we don't have the time to train another from scratch."

Hiashi nodded, "so you have called us here to vote on a successor," he stated plainly.

"I have chosen who I would like to succeed me," Naruto said. "There were a few options, but I have narrowed it down to the one, I believe to be best suited for the position."

He neglected to mention that this was the last choice.

"Uchiha Sasuke."

Authors note:

Well I'm back from vacation , had a lot of fun in San Diego, and ComicCon was great too.

I will say this, lot of cosplayers there. Naruto being what seemed the most popular, I even say a Sage Naruto costume. And pretty much all the teams there, with the odd exception of any Ino-shika-cho combo of any kind. I especially loved the couple dressed as Naruto/Hinata, but sadly the pictures I have I will not post even on my deviant account, they are not of me after all.

To those that have never gone, I defiantly recommend it.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I will try to work out the next one soon. Please review.

Thanks for reading.


	21. Chapter 21

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Twenty-one

'It used to be so quiet here,' he thought sadly as he wrote quickly on a small piece of paper.

A tall, powerful man sat alone out in the middle of nowhere, the isolation was the key to his happiness and peace. There were no crowds, no people anywhere. Nature itself had given him the calm that only a couple of others had been able to.

The wind shifted the trees around him as he sighed dejectedly, almost in time with his expulsion of breath. He looked around his 'home', it was a small cave adorned with a few hand made furnishings. He really could not believe that he was now on the verge of inviting another into his world, but then what choice did he have?

Making his way to Konohagakure was out of the question, he was not sure that he would be able to deliver the message before someone got hurt…or worse.

But lately he had been hearing whispers, rumors of nefarious plans that were being made not far from where he now resided.

To not pass on the information to those who could put a stop to it, would be as though he was the one who carried out the plans himself. He just could not live with that.

'It had to be this way, he will be able to come here,' the man thought. 'He will hear me out. It is too dangerous to write down what I heard…so he will have to come here and I can tell him in person.'

He signed the paper he had just written his message on and rolled it up tightly. The large man motioned over to the only other living creature perched in his cave.

A bird glided over to him as he wrote a name on the side of the scroll, he tied the message to the birds still leg and allowed it to perch temporarily on his right forearm. The man whispered softly to the animal, "I am sorry for the long journey but please take this to Uchiha Sasuke of Konoha."

The bird seemed to nod, almost human-like, before releasing it hold on his arm and taking off out of the cave.

OoOoO

Everyone was silent for a moment, not a sound was heard in the conference room. Naruto did not know what to make of it; normally the council would be up in arms against an idea or vocally supporting it. He always made sure that they were comfortable telling him whatever they thought.

The silence threw him off a bit.

After a long pause, finally Hyuuga Hiashi spoke. "Are you serious, Hokage-sama?"

Naruto looked the man directly in the eye, "very."

Hiashi sighed he then spoke again, "I will give my vote now…no."

"No?" Naruto questioned.

He nodded, "that's right I am certain that Uchiha Sasuke is unfit to be the Hokage."

A few eyebrows rose at this, some others seemed to be nodding in agreement with Hiashi.

"What do you mean, Hiashi-san?" Naruto asked in an even tone.

"We should face facts, he was a traitor." Hiashi replied. "As good of a shinobi and asset as he is now to the village, he did desert us; he went and sought training from one of the worst threats to our village."

"But he did come back," one of the civilian members said. "He came back, helped defeat that threat."

"Yes he came back," Hiashi said. "He came back but there were conditions to his return. Lest we forget those, there was time served and a probationary period. There was also the stipulation that he would not receive a seat on this council to represent the Uchiha. If we denied him a say in the running of this village, why would we give him the top place in it?"

"Hiashi-san raises some very good issues." Aburame Shibi pointed out. "We cannot know what has happened to him in the years he was gone, who is to say he might not be plotting against us? Perhaps even with the threat that faces us now?"

The same civilian spoke again, "he has a wife and kid now. He has reason to protect Konoha."

"And one day his decedents will be able to join this council," Hiashi replied. "And he has reason to protect the ones he loves, that much is true. But it may not include all of Konoha," he corrected the outspoken member.

"Who is to say that he wouldn't take them away sometime, and then destroy us?" Hiashi continued calmly. "Not that I doubt your loyalty to your friend, Hokage-sama, but each of the past Kages loyalty has never wavered…even for a moment. From the Shodai to you, you have all done what you can to protect this village. His loyalty must never be taken for granted."

"Enough," Naruto finally said, with a bit of an edge for his voice. "I trust him completely, so enough of this…the reason I called you here is for the vote, not to insult Uchiha Sasuke."

Hiashi nodded, "you have my vote."

"Aburame clan votes no," Shibi said simply.

"Civilian vote is yes," said the outspoken man, though hesitantly.

"Yamanaka votes no," their representative said.

Shikamaru sighed, "Nara votes no."

Inuzuka Hana spoke next, loudly yet a bit hesitantly, "Yes."

The voting continued on and Naruto drifted out, he now saw where this was heading. As much as it hurt to think, Hiashi did have damn good reasoning.

But he had gone through the list of people who he thought would work. Sasuke was last on that list; he was not looking forward to nominating him, because he saw this coming himself, but if not him then who was left?

And sure enough, "as the vote stands," said the minute keeper. "At a vote 7 to 3, Uchiha Sasuke is denied the position of Hokage."

'Only three votes for,' Naruto thought, 'and only one of them from a ninja clan, the others were the civilian vote and the merchants' guild representative.' He squared his shoulders, "so be it. Are there any suggestions?"

"Uchiha Sakura," one of the clan heads said. "She was apprenticed to Lady Tsunade, and knows all there is to know about the job."

"I mentioned it to Sakura," Naruto said. "She adamantly refused, she is the head of the medic corps and head of the hospital. Not to mention she said the stress of this job would not do well due to her pregnancy, and we need another as soon as possible."

Shibi spoke up again, "what of Sarutobi Konohamaru?" He asked tilting his head slightly to the Konohamaru sitting there. "He has done a good job of acting in your place while you were…unavailable for a time," he finished in a carefully measured and even tone.

Naruto nodded, "he is one of the people that I had thought of, actually he was the first to come to mind."

Konohmaru interrupted, "but I declined, truthfully the week I did the job proved to me that I'm not ready, and that there must be a better choice."

"No one ever believes themselves to be truly ready for such a responsibility," Hiashi said somewhat sternly, almost as though reprimanding a child. "To be perfectly honest I would not trust those that showed zero apprehension taking this job, if you can take the position with little to no worry then you would not be suited for it."

Others around the table nodded their agreement, "I am not entirely sure what you mean, Hiashi-san," Konohamaru said a bit stiffly.

Naruto nodded in understanding, "humility," he said, all eyes turning back to him. "If you think that you deserve it, or that it would be simple then you would never be a good Kage. Your grandfather had it; all the past Hokages had it. You have it too apparently…when it counts at least."

Konohamaru sighed, "Thanks for the encouragement, but I am not ready…I stand by that."

Naruto nodded, "all right, I have another suggestion. There was one other person that accepted should Sasuke be denied, and I'm calling another vote."

OoOoO

"I'm not really all that surprised," Sasuke shrugged indifferently. "To tell you the truth I would have been shocked if they did agree."

Naruto looked his friend over, relieved that the man had taken council's rejection so well. "Sorry teme, I thought that I could have gotten their support."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed a bit at the name, but other than that overlooked it, "I only said I would do it because you had few other options otherwise. I'm not disappointed though, it was never my goal to be Hokage anyway and if he said ok then things will work out."

Naruto grinned, "While he is defiantly skilled enough, I hope that he puts some effort into it."

Sasuke nodded his agreement, a slight smirk playing across his face.

There was a knock on the door of the office, "Come in," Naruto shouted.

A young man who worked with the messenger bird service entered and bowed to him, then with an odd look in his eye bowed to Sasuke, "Hokage-sama…Uchiha-sama, an odd coincidence you are here too."

"What is it Kin?" Naruto asked kindly.

The young man looked slightly reverent, especially since the Hokage knew his name, "a message came for Uchiha-sama, we were about to send it to cryptography but despite the sensitive nature of the news there is no code to it." He strode across the room and handed the scroll to Naruto.

"It was addressed to me?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes sir," the messenger answered politely, "however, due to the material, Hokage-sama is the one who should receive the information first."

Naruto read the message and his eyes widened. He looked back at the messenger, "and this came in with no code of any kind?"

"Hai."

Naruto nodded to him and motioned that he could leave. He then handed the scroll to Sasuke who read through it quickly.

Sasuke,

I know that it must be a surprise to hear from me, and I hope that this message finds you. To be honest I don't really want to reach out to anyone, but I can't ignore the rumors any more.

I have heard from many of my 'friends' that not far from where I now live there is some kind of base, and in that base there are warriors that plan to do harm to the world.

I'm not sure what is going on, I left the general public behind for obvious reasons. But I would like you to come out and meet me (the location to my current home is on the map enclosed).

These people are planning something, something big. And I fear that you, the only person left I see as a friend, need warning.

I hope to see you soon, and hopefully only you,

Jugo

Sasuke looked up, "Well Jugo was never one for subtlety."

"You realize that even though this holds no real information, if it was intercepted your old friend would have been found and confronted…maybe killed," Naruto said.

"Yes," Sasuke nodded. "But he would have taken quite a few with him."

"I guess," Naruto said. "But still it would have alerted these people that other were onto them, no matter how little info we actually have, they would have been on their guard even more then they have been."

"So what should we do?"

Naruto nodded, "meet with him, find out exactly what his 'friends' have told him. I would have liked to go too…"

"But he only wants to see me, I don't think he wants to be tempted in anyway back to his old ways," Sasuke interrupted. "While he won't attack you while I'm there, maybe it's best I go alone. He has not felt an urge at all living way out there, I don't want to do that to him."

Naruto let a teasing grin across his face, "Sasuke-kun, being so considerate of his friends…what a great guy." He said in a fair impersonation of any of his old fan-girls.

"Asshole," Sasuke muttered, his eyebrow twitching.

Naruto's humor faded, "joking aside, I will be traveling soon anyway, I have to go with him on a trip to visit the other Kages. I remember doing that with Tsunade…"he trailed off a bit. "It's gonna be weird introducing him as my successor."

OoOoO

Authors note: Short chapter I know, sorry for the wait though and please review.

I had a thought recently however, for a story that should be following the children it sure isn't doing that…I'm not sure how I veered off but when I finish this story, and I will I have the end game all planned out, I think I will be writing another story that I free standing from this one.

The characters will remain the same mostly, the back story will hold more true to canon so my OC Kawazu will most likely not be in it and as an example the Kyuubi will still be in Naruto.

I think that I will hold off on that story until the series of Naruto is finished, which I see happening soon, so that I can remain truer to the main story line and treat it as an actual continuation.

However whatever happens in canon, it will still be a NaruHina. So if in the main story Naruto and Hinata don't end up together, which I remain firm they will, they will be in my story.

Sakura may not end up with Sasuke, depending on Canon.

So tell me what you think about that idea, and of course this chapter.

Thanks for reading.


	22. Chapter 22

Disclaimer: I neither own nor do I get paid for any Naruto related things.

Circle of Leaves

Chapter Twenty-two

They rode in horse drawn carriage, mostly in silence, as was tradition. Two men and a woman occupied the carriage and were flanked by the Anbu escort.

Naruto sat fidgeting; this was the second time he had to do this. The first was with Tsunade when he had to go and meet with the four other Kage's before his official coronation, now it was his turn to introduce his successor to the others.

He would have much preferred to transport them to the villages by using his summons in the way that Kawazu had done, but that was not to be for two reasons.

The first being it was tradition to travel in this way for this purpose, and his successor was a firm believer in tradition.

The second was that while Kawazu had set up seals near each of the other villages to allow him to do so, when his contract with the toads was forcibly broken, the seals that corresponded with it would have to be reactivated.

He figured that one out when he intended to take Sasuke to the point closest to where Jugo was now living, and was in for a revelation. That was his second purpose for this trip, to reset the seals for his own use.

So he sat, growing more and more frustrated by the whole situation, and the month long journey that was now required.

To his right sat Hinata, he had not wanted her to come due to her pregnancy and the danger that still lay hidden, but she had insisted. And as the wife of the Hokage, her presence would not be questioned.

She would be taking it easy, they had plenty of skilled protection, and so he really saw no situation in which she would be threatened. Besides the fact, she wasn't that far along and could defiantly defend herself so a short while, should the need arise.

Hopefully it would not.

As the carriage trundled onward through the woods, Naruto decided to break the silence. He addressed the man seated across from the two of them, "You know, I still am surprised that you agreed to take on the job."

The other sat silently for a moment, "to be perfectly honest, I was surprised at the nomination. I am an old man, I was planning on retiring soon from my current position as well."

Naruto shrugged, "maybe," he said shrewdly. "But you are fair, intelligent and you have experience heading one of the largest and most powerful clans in existence."

Hinata smiled, "I think that you will make a fine Hokage, father."

Hiashi simply nodded, his stoic visage not once changing, still hoping that he would be able to lead in the way that was required of him.

Naruto thought on what he had said to Sasuke a couple of days ago; it really would be weird to introduce his father-in-law as a successor. Mainly because of older mans strict adherence to etiquette, compared to his own…that were much less so.

OoOoO

Life was simply unfair…

Kawazu sat alone in one of the many benches that scattered the large park in the center of Konoha, brooding silently.

He was never one to think that life was completely fair; the happiest moments in his life were the few all too brief visits his father used to make in his travels. During those times he felt complete…he had a whole, real family.

Not to say that his mother being around wasn't great, he always had her to rely on. She always had a happy and content look gracing her beautiful face, and it helped calm him as well. But when his father showed up, that face of hers changed ever so slightly.

If she was happy before, that was noting to the look she got when the old man showed. She would positively beam, and that always made Kawazu feel split.

On the one hand she was truly happy. He liked seeing his mother like that.

One the other, why was it that a wandering Ninja, who was for the most part absent from their lives, why was it that he made her truly happy?

All that happiness went away the moment they heard that the great Jiraiya was killed in battle.

He hated and loved his father, hated him for what his death did to her…but loved him so much there were many nights he would listen to his mother crying herself to sleep, and he would start as well.

It was his death eventually followed by hers as well that prompted his life goal, he would surpass the old sage, and be a greater man and ninja than Jiraiya ever was. He would use his father's memory as both a rival and an inspiration.

But that was all over now, his life as it was, was done. Brought back by a woman who was likely the only other that his father had loved, at the cost of her own life. He didn't want that, he never asked for that. Even now, after her last will and testament was revealed, showing that she was not long for this world anyway, did little to ease his guilt.

He was too weak; Naruto had to step down from the position that was his ultimate driving force when he was young, and fill in for him.

The village itself lost two of its Hokage's to save a broken man.

And all of that was next to nothing compared to the fact that he could barely look 'her' in the eyes any longer.

"Kawazu," a worried voice was heard breaking though his thoughts.

He looked up on instinct too see Hanabi walking toward him and quickly looked away, saying nothing.

He heard her walking to him and soon settling herself down next to him on the bench. "Kawazu," she said and he could hear the heart break in her voice though she kept it quite steady. "Kawazu, I only wanted to talk. Please look at me."

She lifted and directed his head by the chin so that they were face to face; he kept his eyes downcast and still did not speak.

"I know that you are hurting, but please…I'm begging you, don't cut me out of your life." She said slowly, "Please look at me."

He shook his head, "I'm sorry…I can't," he mumbled.

Her fingers left his face, "why?"

He sighed, how the hell could he explain this?

"Why?" she repeated with a bit of heat in her voice. "I love you, and I know that you are grieving…I believe more so then most of us are, but I want to help you. Please don't act so distant from me."

Kawazu moved his head away from her; he would have to say something. She was starting to get upset now, and he didn't want to lose her even if he couldn't bring himself to meet her eye.

"I love you too," he spoke quietly. "That has not changed, I promise. But for now, I'm sorry, but I can't look at you."

She still sat there; she was not going any where with out an explanation.

Kawazu closed his eyes, "and that's the worst part of it, all that has happened and I can't get over it and look you in the eye."

"Why is that?" she seemed relived that at least he was talking.

"Everything that has happened, the fight that killed me, Lady Tsunade's death…my abilities lost. It is all because of my weakness, and the Hyuuga that did this," He began. "The former Hyuuga I mean, and every…every time I see your eyes, I…it's a reminder. All I can see is him, and be reminded of my failure and the end of my life as it was."

Hanabi was about to speak, but Kawazu kept talking. Now that he was getting it out, he could not allow anyone to interrupt him. "All of that led to so much trouble, Lady Tsunade is gone. Naruto had to give up his position to cover for me, and now places himself in danger. The same danger that has prevented me from settling down, just like my father."

"Nobody blames for any of that, my self included," Hanabi said softly. "Yes, bad things happened, but the happened to you as well. You are not the cause of it, you tried to stop it."

He said nothing.

"Naruto, as the Hokage, protects this village. He does what is necessary to do so, even if it means stepping down. Truthfully, wasn't he planning to step down soon anyway?" She said.

Kawazu nodded slowly.

She lifted his head up again, and he quickly kept his eyes down. "Look at me," she said sternly.

He did, looked her in the face to find her eyes closed. "What?" he asked confused.

She had a half smile cross her face, "Hinata once told me that she would have given anything, even her life, to keep Naruto safe. She would have given her own happiness to make sure he had his. It thankfully didn't come to that, but I would do the same for you."

Kawazu looked down on the woman, "Hanabi…" he started.

"Naruto, I know, would do the same thing for my sister. And I know you'd do that too, for me," she said gently. "And I will do what I can to help you, you should not have to deal with this alone.

Kawazu pulled her into a sudden embrace, and her eyes snapped open to see his head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry Hanabi, sorry I was ignoring the problem…I didn't realize what I was doing to you."

He pulled away from her and finally looked her in the eye, and too his surprise the fact that they were Hyuuga eyes did not matter. There was a look, a glow to her eyes that she had not had before. He had not looked at her so deeply since he came back, but he caught something there. Struck by this he spoke, "there is something different about you, something…" he searched for the right word, "something more than there was before."

A slight blush, barely noticeable, dusted her cheeks as she bit her lower lip…how was she going to explain this?

People in the surrounding area of the park were startled at the sudden, loud shout of "NANI!?" that could be heard half-way across the village.

This shout was soon followed by joyous male laughter.

And Kawazu pulled Hanabi closer and in wonder, he had just been contemplating that the happiest moments of his life were when he could be part of a real, complete family…to think he now had that coming.

OoOoO

Sasuke made his way up the mountain that held the cave Jugo now resided in. It had taken him a little over 2 days to make his way here, not that he minded getting out of the house for a short while. (pregnancy hormones)

He soon found the opening in the side of the rocks and slipped inside.

A massive man sat before a small fire, casting him in its flickering light. Sasuke nodded to him cautiously, wondering what kind of mood the man was in.

"It's been a while Sasuke," Jugo said pleasantly.

Sasuke nodded again, "Yes at least three years."

Jugo cocked his head seemingly surprised, "that long? Hard to tell out here, can barely even go by the seasons up in the mountains. How are things with you?" He continued conversationally, "Last I can remember you married and a little girl right?"

Sasuke found it odd that he was trying to catch up without a care in the world, he called him out here to share some information. But Sasuke decided to go with it, years of voluntary isolation seemed to have changed his friend a bit. "Aki, yes, she is six now. And Sakura is pregnant again."

Jugo smiled, "congratulations."

"Thank you."

Jugo was silent for a few moments before his smile faded and he spoke seriously, "Sasuke I called you out here because I hear things. The animals tell me things you know?" Sasuke nodded and Jugo continued, "I have a lot to tell you."

Authors note: sorry for the long wait and the short chapter, I will try to have next out sooner but can't tell exactly when. Please review, it's always welcome.


	23. authors note

Authors note: sorry all for the insanily long wait. But at this point this story is on and has been on a hiatus. I have no idea when I will be able to continue it, but every time I sit down to start to write…I get absolutely nothing. I don't know what it is, I really am trying, but I just don't see an ending to this project.

I have been contemplating going back and rewriting the entire story or just scrapping this one and beginning a new one of Naruto and gang as parents.

I don't know. The point is I have not abandoned this one, it is simply on the backburner for an undetermined amount of time.

After all, too much crap going on for me right now…and at the same time I am also bored out of my mind. Got layed off a while ago, and the job market sucks. Been looking and looking living on my severance and unemployment, so to be fair I do have other, far more pressing, priorities aside from my writers block. Unemployement wont last forever.

So until next time, best wishes, stay safe and hope to be back on my game soon so 'til then, take care.

oh and happy birthday Hinata


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